Whales and Wildlife in the San Juan Islands
Whale sightings have been very consistent for the month of June and also for the first half of July. For three weeks in a row the whales would move out of our area on Friday and return on Sunday. Happily, the orca decided to stay around so far this weekend.
I’m getting conflicting reports about the abundance of salmon this year. I have heard it will be a dismal year and also heard it will be a decent year for chinook (kings). There was a fishing derby last weekend at Deer Harbor that brought in quite a few chinook as large as 28 lbs. Most of the fish were caught on the east side of Orcas so I suspect the fish are hatchery fish from Cypress Island or a Frasier River run of Chinook.
Most of the whale sightings have been in Rosario Strait, Strait of Georgia and the east side of Orcas, right where the largest number of salmon are. The researchers at Lime Kiln Lighthouse (Whale Watch Park) on the west side of San Juan Island report a 50% decline in sightings.
This past week we had the resident orca in the morning around Sucia and Patos Island and down around the southwest tip of Lopez in the afternoon.
There appears to be two whales from K pod, Cappuccino, K-21 (born 1986) and Lummi, K-7 (born 1910) that have not been seen as yet this season. Since we’ve been seeing the whales traveling in sub groups and K pod has been gone more than they’ve been around the islands, the possibility exists that these two whales are still alive and mixed in another sub group or pod. It would be particularly hard for me if Lummi is gone. She is one of the oldest whales in the pods (98 years old!). I have had some really nice encounters watching her with her extended family for many years.
I’ll keep you updated on the latest news regarding the whales and wildlife.