Lauren | M/V Kestrel | Thursday, June 5th, 2025 | 3:00 PM
We had a triple fluking extravaganza on our Adventure Tour today! We began our journey by heading north in San Juan Channel. Our first order of business was to search through Boundary Pass. Boundary hadn’t been scanned in awhile, so we decided to see if anything had popped up. We exited San Juan Channel and cruised into Spring Passage, pointed northeast towards Presidents Channel. While searching for whales, we decided to take our guests on a lighthouse tour.
First we cruised by Patos Island and got great views of its lighthouse with Mount Baker shining in the background. We then crossed the border over into Canada to drive by East Point Lighthouse. Both of these lighthouses were built to help guide ships north to the Port of Vancouver. The lighthouses were needed to aid navigators as they transited through the dangerous waters of Boiling Reef. With no luck finding whales, we decided to head to Java Rocks to look at some sunbathing harbor seals. Harbor seals spend a large portion of their day warming up on the rockface, thermoregulating. After admiring these pinnipeds we headed for Swanson Channel, following up on a report of three Humpback Whales!
Thanks to photo-identification, it was determined that the whales we were viewing were Yakima, Monarch and Hendrix. A lot of times, after finishing their breath cycle, humpbacks will go on deeper dives. When doing this, they will bring their tail fluke out of the water to propel themselves further underneath the surface. We observed as these three animals swam in a tight group, fluking on every one of their deep dives. A humpback's tail fluke is massive, averaging 15 - 18 feet in length! We consider ourselves lucky every time we catch a glimpse of a fluke during a tour. So getting to see THREE whales fluke with every deep dive they took was an extra special treat.