Humpback whale, minke whales and tufted puffins

June 28, 2021 – Southbound from Friday Harbor in San Juan Channel passing harbor seals hauled out on Sharks Reef and a pair of bald eagles by Deadman Island. One flew down to the shoreline and was looking like it was waiting to snatch something out of the water. Harbor seals and Steller sea lions were gathered on Whale Rocks while black oystercatchers made a bunch of noise nearby. As we were enroute to see a humpback whale at the bottom of Hein Bank we came across a pair of tufted puffins floating together all by themselves. Such an amazing and rather uncommon sighting. As we were getting closer to the humpback we spotted a minke whale in the distance. We waited for a few minutes but didn’t see him/her surface again. The humpback had drifted south on the current but we pressed on to see him. It was identified as MMX0084 “Scuttle”. It had been logging at the surface taking short dives for a few hours. Seemed like unusual behavior to us, but we heard it was slapping pectoral flippers and tail flukes easier in the day. Maybe it was just taking a nap. We went a long way and had to turn back after a short encounter with the humpback, but it was still an incredible moment being in the presence of this large whale hearing its exhales. As we crossed Salmon Bank we found a minke whale who gave us many good looks and rhinoceros auklets were busy catching beakfuls of fish.