Gray whale in Cattle Pass along with three sea otters

April 11, 2021 – An exciting day with excellent winds, a gray whale, two sea otters and many harbor seals and steller sea lions.

It’s not too often that we get lucky enough to see gray whales in our neck of the woods. They typically spend the spring months around Whidbey Island foraging for ghost shrimp. Gray whale sightings around San Juan Island happen about once a year.

Prior to casting off from the dock we heard of a possible gray whale spotted from shore near Salmon Bank so we chose to head south. As we were sailing out of Cattle Pass we spotted the heart shaped blow and knew we found the gray whale. Unfortunately, the gray whale was very skinny and not looking too good. We’re hoping he/she finds enough to eat. We sent photos to Orca Network for further review.

Two sea otters popped up in the vicinity of the gray whale near Whale Rocks with a third sea otter nearby. Later on we heard another sea otter was spotted near Allen Island in Rosario Strait. Quite unusual for us to see any sea otters let alone hear about this many in one day!

One of those sea lions at Whale Rocks looks to either have an entanglement around his neck or scar from prior entanglement. We sent photos to the marine mammal stranding network to check on him.