Finding a minke on Salmon Bank

June 26, 2021 – Half day sail south to Salmon Bank where we had great views of a minke whale. This whale looks like one we’ve seen last year – it has a noticeable scooped in back in front of the dorsal fin. After passing Cattle Point we were headed out to see a different minke whale, but somehow it vanished. While changing course to go to the southern end of the bank we spotted a lunging minke whale amongst the birds through binoculars. When we got closer it was tricky finding it since the whale had stopped feeding and was on the move. We realized it was traveling north along the outer edge of the bank and then flipped to go back south along the same path. Paralleling the whale as he/she traveled gave us some fantastic looks. Many diving birds were all around including rhinoceros auklets, pigeon guillemots and cormorants. Other highlights included black oystercatchers and bald eagles by Deadman Island, harbor seals and Steller sea lions on Whale Rocks at an extremely low tide, nesting cormorants and gulls on Goose Island and a large number of harbor porpoise south of Turn Island.