Gray Whale at Salmon Bank plus a rare Arctic Tern

May 25, 2021 – As we left Friday Harbor we decided to head south today. We love cutting in the pass behind Turn Island to spot the wildlife that lives there… harbor seals, raccoons, black oystercatchers, bald eagles, harlequin ducks, Canada geese. Conditions in the pass were like a mirror reflecting the islands and the sky. Cutting across the channel to Big Rock we continued down the Lopez coastline where we found several bald eagles including a juvenile on the shoreline. Harbor porpoise were scattered about in the channel. We sailed across to Harbor Rock and hugged the Cape to view the nesting cormorants and gulls on Goose Island. While enroute to see a gray whale on Salmon Bank we found many rhinoceros auklets, some common murres, and a rare arctic tern standing on a piece of kelp floating by. It was our first tern sighting here in the San Juans and very exciting for us.

The gray whale encounter was magical. Watching the animal surface to breathe and raise it’s tail flukes high out of the water upon each deep dive was magnificent. It’s the same whale we’ve been seeing, CRC1364, who has been in our area since the first week in April. Previously it had only been documented once before on April 9, 2011 off La Push on the west side of the Olympic Peninsula. On our way back to Cattle Pass we stopped by Whale Rocks to see the sea lions. Several youngsters were frolicking about leaping in the raging current on the west tip. The strong flood current was exciting to witness as we zoomed into Cattle Pass enroute back to Friday Harbor.