My sister and I have been going to SWC regularly for years, but we have never seen a wild orca. We decided that it was time to see the wild resident orcas. So in July 2005 we took a 1,300 mile road trip up to Washington from San Diego. While up there we took two whale-watching trips and 1 sea kayaking trip.

About our trip:

Day 1: July 21, 2005
Whale-Watching from Anacortes
Animals seen:
Harbor seals
Harbor porpoises
1 bald eagle
Orcas (J, K, L pods)
Dall’s porpoises
1 gray whale
Many different types of sea birds of which I can’t remember the species names
This was a 6-hour whale-watching trip. The weather was beautiful, no clouds in sight. The water was absolutely still, no waves whatsoever. We headed out to the San Juan Islands in search of orcas. As soon as we left the harbor we saw a mother harbor seal and her pup swimming. We came up to this small island (more like a huge rock than and island) where a whole bunch of other harbor seals were resting on the rocks. There were dozens of them, and that was the biggest group of harbor seals we had seen during our whole trip. Most of them were resting on the shore but there were a few of them swimming in the kelp right next to the island. Later we saw a group of 3 or 4 harbor porpoises. We soon found the orcas and we spent about 2 hours with them. There were orcas from all 3 pods. They were really spread out. At first they surrounded us but they were still pretty far away. The captain turned the boat off for a long time. For a while the orcas were swimming past us, then a mother and her calf came porpoising really fast right towards the boat, and they swam right under us. Then just a few minutes later L-57 (Faith) did the same thing. Another female came swimming slowly towards our boat and she took a breath directly in front of it. The orcas continued breathing around us. Not much commotion was going on. Three or 4 of them did some tail lobbing. The naturalists on our boat said the whales were probably hunting because they would randomly switch directions a lot. Faith stayed around our boat the longest. He was traveling with two other females for a while but later he went off on his own. That was my first wild orca encounter. It was very awesome. Later after spending a couple of hours with the orcas we saw a group of 4 Dall’s porpoises. One of them was a baby. They also were hunting. We also saw harbor porpoises one last time. On our way back to Anacortes the captain said that someone spotted a lone gray whale. So he went to go find it. Within 10 minutes we found it eating off the coast of Lopez Island. It would take 4 or 5 breaths, then it would dive down and dig through the mud to get the food. When it would do this a large mud stream could be seen in the water. When it was underwater we would look for bubbles to see where it would surface. We watched it surface about 5 times and then we left. That was the most awesome trip. We saw so many different marine mammals, and we got to spend a lot of time with the orcas.

Day 2: July 22, 2005
Whale-Watching from Orcas Island
Animals seen:
Harbor seals
1 Peregrine falcon
Bald eagles
Orcas (J and L pods)
My sister and I took the ferry over to Orcas Island from Anacortes, and we went whale watching from Orcas Island. This tour was 3 ½ hours, but we got just as much time with the orcas. We started off closer to them, and we found them pretty quickly. The weather was cooler. It had rained during the morning. Luckily it had stopped by the time we got on the ferry. It was still cold, and the water was rough. It rocked the boat like crazy. We found the orcas pretty quickly. They were swimming in a larger group than the day before. There were about 65 whales all swimming together. They were all swimming north along the west coast of San Juan Island. Leading the group was J-1 Ruffles and J-2 Granny. L-71 Hugo was in the middle of the group and L-41 Mega was at the very end of the group. They were all right up against shore. They were swimming right by Lime Kiln State Park, the land based whale-watching park. Our boat had to stay ½ mile away from shore while passing the park. The rest of the time we had to stay ¼ of a mile away from shore. We pretty much stayed in line with Hugo and the whales he was traveling with for quite a while. The whales were extremely active on this day. There was much breaching, tail lobbing, spy hopping, porpoising etc. going on. This was by far the most awesome thing that I have ever witnessed. We saw 4 baby orcas (various ages, but one was really small). Ruffles and Granny swam right by our boat. Ruffles spy hopped directly in front of our boat. A young orca breached directly in front of it. The babies were all really active, breaching and speed swimming. We spent about 2 hours with the orcas again. The whole time they were active. Maybe they really liked the rough water. The captain of our boat loved Eagles, so we spent a while looking at all the eagles nests that he knew of. It was awesome because we saw quite a few bald eagles. None of the nests had babies in them, but we did see two juvenile eagles that were still brown. We got to see an eagle hunting for fish. That was awesome. While looking for the eagles we saw a Peregrine falcon. They are really hard to find because they blend in with the rocks so well. Luckily we caught one as it was flying so we got to see it really well. On the way back to Orcas Island we saw a bunch of harbor seals lying on the rocks of San Juan Island. We got to explore Orcas Island a little when we got back because it was 2 hours until the next ferry came to take us back to Anacortes.

Day 4: July 24
6- hour Sea Kayaking off San Juan Island
This was the most exciting day. We didn’t see any orcas but it was so much fun. This was my first time sea kayaking. My sister and I took the ferry over to San Juan Island from Anacortes. We had a group of 10 plus the guide with us. My sister and I shared a kayak. It was very different being out in the middle of the ocean without actually being in a large boat. We didn’t see much wildlife. Only jellyfish and harbor seals, but the scenery was beautiful. After sea kayaking we walked around Friday Harbor (which is where the ferry docks on San Juan Island). This town was much larger than the town we docked at on Orcas Island. Overall the trip was great. I finally got to see wild orcas, that was all I wanted.

My Washington pictures



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