Thursday, September 03, 2009
Andaria Crespi - The Whale Whisperer
Well, ok, that's a corny title for this post but she has been the luckiest guide on staff when it comes to whale sightings over the last few weeks. These last couple of days it has been the elusive Minke whale that she has seen.
Two days ago she was in Deception Pass with us enjoying a "busman's holiday" and playing around in the flood current when a large Minke whale broke the surface in the calm waters east of the bridge. Now that's not the sort of thing that you see every day, so we broke out of the eddy and headed over to take a look. Minkes are a small baleen whale that feeds by swimming rapidly into a school of fish with their mouths open wide, and that is exactly what this fella was doing, small fish scattered at the surface as he lunged forward. We watched him for a while before he moved on to another school of fish.
Yesterday it happened to Andaria again. She was leading a 3 hour Burrows Island trip when a Minke surfaced quite close to the group. Minke whales are notoriously difficult to spot from a whale watch boat, so you can imagine how surprising it was for Andaria to see them two days in a row, from a kayak!
Whales aside, it has been an amazing summer for wildlife of all sorts. We've been very fortunate this summer for all of the great weather and fantastic wildlife viewing. Now it is September, our guides' favorite month. The weather is usually great, and the crowds of summer have gone, life in the San Juans doesn't get much better than this.
Two days ago she was in Deception Pass with us enjoying a "busman's holiday" and playing around in the flood current when a large Minke whale broke the surface in the calm waters east of the bridge. Now that's not the sort of thing that you see every day, so we broke out of the eddy and headed over to take a look. Minkes are a small baleen whale that feeds by swimming rapidly into a school of fish with their mouths open wide, and that is exactly what this fella was doing, small fish scattered at the surface as he lunged forward. We watched him for a while before he moved on to another school of fish.
Yesterday it happened to Andaria again. She was leading a 3 hour Burrows Island trip when a Minke surfaced quite close to the group. Minke whales are notoriously difficult to spot from a whale watch boat, so you can imagine how surprising it was for Andaria to see them two days in a row, from a kayak!
Whales aside, it has been an amazing summer for wildlife of all sorts. We've been very fortunate this summer for all of the great weather and fantastic wildlife viewing. Now it is September, our guides' favorite month. The weather is usually great, and the crowds of summer have gone, life in the San Juans doesn't get much better than this.
# posted by Anacortes Kayaks @ 9:37 AM 
