Posts Tagged ‘Saturna Island’

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Yet another beautiful, sunny day out here in the San Juan Islands.

Wednesday, May 16th, 2012

Upon departing the boat harbor we traveled north through the San Juan Channel to the west side of Waldren Island and into Boundary Pass. As we motored through Boundary Pass towards Patos Island, Captain Mike saw some splashing in the distance. Upon further investigation it was a Steller Sea Lion feeding on a fish. The Stellar Sea Lion surfaced with the fish in its mouth then forcefully tossed its head from side to side, flinging the fish and tearing bits off the carcass. We were all mesmerized by the carnage.

We then continued motoring north towards Patos Island and found roughly 20 harbor porpoise near Alden Point. Due to the harbor porpoises’ erratic behavior, swimming fast and changing direction frequently, along with the strong tidal currents churning up the water in this area, we suspected the harbor porpoise were foraging. What an amazing view of these normally shy and elusive animals.

As we motored back down through Boundary Pass we stopped at East Point on Saturna Island to view two different groups of pinnipeds hauled out on the rocks: Harbor Seals and Steller Sea Lions. We counted over 28 Steller Sea Lions at one end of the rocky outcrop and at least 108 Harbor Seals at the other end! So COOL! What a rare treat to be able to compare the morphological and behavioral differences between these two species.

Let’s not forget the number of bald eagles we saw throughout the trip. There were mature bald eagles, immature bald eagles, flying eagles, and eagles resting on tree branches.  We always love seeing these majestic birds.

Amy, Naturalist, San Juan Safaris Whale Watching and Wildlife Tours

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Seal-links

Monday, September 5th, 2011

Today was a day of lots and lots of harbor seals!  Everywhere!  And many of them were lined up like sausage links!  Transient orca sausage links!

We first went north towards Waldron Island and found them basking on a nearby rock.  Next, we went further north into Canadian waters and found them off of Saturna Island where five of them were lined up in a row.  Out by Sentinel Island, we found another thirty or so, with about six babies hauled out along the shoreline in their little “nursery” area.  And we even saw several swimming through the many channels we traveled through on our wildlife safari.

But it wasn’t all seal sausages today.  We also saw the elusive harbor porpoises off of Turn Point on Stuart Island, the most northwestern point in the continental US!  They were milling about and surfacing at random.

Serena, Naturalist

San Juan Safaris

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Flying whales and swooping baldies

Tuesday, July 12th, 2011

O Canadaaaa, you have the resident orcas in your waters and we are coming to see them!  North out of the harbor, past Yellow Island (hello, plump harbor seals!), along Spieden Island (any Mouflon sheep?), around Flattop Island, across to Waldron Island (shy harbor porpoises) and across the Haro Strait (and the US/Canadian border) to Saturna Island.  And what did we find?  The largest of the dolphin (odontocete) species: killer whales!

Upon arriving to the scene, passengers saw three whales off our port, with another one off our bow and more coming from the east at our starboard.  A large male was swimming behind us about 5oo yards in the shipping channel.  He seemed to be the one to rev things up in the pod; this male gave two full clear-the-water breaches before resorting to some tail slaps as a tanker ship was about to pass through southbound.  Word in the pod must have spread that it was active time, and multiple orcas–including several precocious calves–began breaching, tail slapping, peduncle throwing and upside down tail slapping repeatedly.  And then again.  And then some more!  This continued for at least thiry minutes and was still going on intermittently when we had to leave for home port.  Our hydrophone (underwater microphone) indicated that it was a very spread out and vocal resident whale (salmon-loving/eating) pod.

Along the way home, we spotted four bald eagles; one came flying down for the classic fish-grab-with-talons-out but at the last minute decided not to.  Did his fish food item dive out of sight or did it not measure up as a worthy meal?

Serena, Naturalist

San Juan Safaris

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Steller of a day

Tuesday, July 5th, 2011

We took a long trip north today with reports that there were killer whales hanging around Saturna in Canadian waters. The ride out was beautiful. The sun was shining, there was a clear view of Mt. Baker, and the waters were calm and glassy. What’s even better is that the trip up was totally worth it; J-pod was in the area. We were able to identify Riptide and Slick amongst the individuals we encountered.

After what seemed like no time at all we were on our way back to Friday Harbor. But we were able to stop by a buoy where a young Steller’s sea lion was attempting to jump from the water onto it. After a few stumbles, the little guy was finally able to accomplish this feat while the passengers on the boat cheered. After that, we enjoyed the leisurely trip back into the harbor.

Kristen, Naturalist, San Juan Safaris

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Glorious Evening With Orcas

Monday, June 20th, 2011

We departed Friday Harbor and headed north.  There was absolutely no wind and the water was like glass.  An incredible night for whale watching.  We caught up to J-pod around Monarch Head on Saturna island.  There were about six animals traveling very close to each other, and very close to shore.  We had perfect lighting for all the photographers on the boat to get some great shots of the whales surfacing together.  We even had some passengers capture the elusive ‘spyhop’ behavior on film.  We stayed with the whales as they slowly traveled north in to the Strait of Georgia.  We had never seen the water so calm.  We watched in silence for a while as we could here the big male named ‘Blackberry’ take deep breathes.  We would have stayed with the whales longer but they were leading us away from home, so we said our goodbyes and headed back to the harbor just in time to see a beautiful sunset!

Mike – Naturalist

San Juan Safaris

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Choices

Friday, June 17th, 2011

Today we got spoiled: we had a choice between two transient killer whale pods!  The first group was called in as located off Sidney Island on the Canadian side of the Haro straight.  We left the harbor with these whales in mind but then we got another call; a second pod was seen between Saturna and South Pender Islands.

Once we caught up with this second group, we found that there were three animals in the pod: one male, one female and one calf.  Even with lots of helpful eyes on the water, references to our transient catalog and chats with other vessels, we were not able to positively identify this pod.  They showed some splashing and direction changes and then began heading west along South Pender Island.

On our venture back to US waters and Friday Harbor, we saw a few perched bald eagles and many plump harbor seals at John’s Pass.  Watch out, seals, the transients are near and roughly two-thirds of their diet is YOU!

Serena, Naturalist

San Juan Islands

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The Boys Are Back In Town!

Thursday, June 9th, 2011

J pod was present and playful today! We first saw the orcas at Saturna Island’s East Point as both juveniles and adults took turns breaching, lob tailing and spy hopping as they slowly made their way east. Two mature males were in the lead for some time, which we believe to be the pod-mates Blackberry (J-27) and Mike (J-26). An exceptional day to be viewing wildlife and on the water!

Kirsten, naturalist

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Feasting Transients find Stellar Sea Lions

Saturday, May 28th, 2011

Today was the first day of Memorial Day Weekend and we celebrated it by nearly filling both of our vessels, the Sea Lion and the Kittiwake, for an afternoon whale watch.  Throughout the day, the weather went from gray clouds and overcast to nice white fluffy clouds and sunshine.  We boarded the boats and left Friday Harbor heading north towards the Canadian border.  After an hour of solid travel, several sea birds, numerous islands and a swimming harbor seal, we edged up to East point off Saturna Island.  And there they were: a pod of transient orcas!

As we approached the area, we heard through the vessel radio grapevine that the pod may have made a recent Stellar sea lion kill.  When we got to the scene, the whales were zig-zagging and milling about; no obvious foraging activity was seen.  While observing the pod, we noticed a very large adult male dorsal fin that had significant lean to the left and was very curved for a male.  The other individuals in the pod appeared to be females and juveniles.  Later, another vessel identified one of the orcas as T18.

After ten minutes or so, the pod started traveling faster towards the south, moving more erratically and then thrashing about.  The hunt was on!  And it looked like another Stellar sea lion was the target.  We saw the pod of four orcas thrashing about, throwing their bloody red tasty morsel in the air.  At one point, it looked like the sea lion had gotten away and it made some headway with about forty feet of distance from the whales.  But then the transients caught up to their meal and continued thrashing and tossing it around.  Eventually, the male and a second orca split off from the other two, leaving the latter to contend with the sea lion.  Time was running out for our whale watch and we began making our way back to Friday Harbor.

All in all, quite an exciting day.  Seeing transient orca whales feed is never a boring event, especially with the thrashing, breaching and tossing of a bleeding sea lion in the air!

Serena, Naturalist

San Juan Safaris

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Of Dolphins And Diamonds

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

Seeing the San Juan Islands is magical and seeing the orcas can be downright transcendental for some.  But, when you can pair those two things with a major milestone in a person’s life it becomes a rare and unique moment that makes existence in this world a more glorious thing.  It also shines a light on one of the reasons why I have always chosen to live the impoverished lifestyle of a naturalist/wildlife rehabilitator/marine mammal rescuer/zookeeper.  Much as it is said that baseball is all about the love of the game, wildlife caretaking is all about the love of the animals.  And that love makes it all worth it.

Today we saw the orcas again and it was a beautiful day.  But, for Chase and Ashley it marked the completion of a quest and the start of a new adventure.  This was their second trip out to Friday Harbor from Toledo, Ohio and last time they did not see orcas.   This visit they were determined, even if it meant going out on the boat every day so that Ashley could see her most favorite animal.  She even has the best tattoo of an orca I have ever seen; it looks just like the pictures.  Thankfully it turned out to be their lucky day and we got to watch J pod breach, spyhop and generally horseplay their way around East Point and down Saturna Island.  Chase was even able to get some great photos that they can put on the wall of their home to mark this special of day.  An additional reminder of their time here in the islands will be the fact that this is the day that Chase and Ashley got engaged.

So, from all of us at San Juan Safaris, to all of you lovebirds and animal lovers out there, thank you and…

Congratulations Chase and Ashley!

~Tristen, Naturalist

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Sunkissed and Blissed

Sunday, June 13th, 2010

Another sunny day on the Sea Lion!  As we boarded the boat, we received news that orca whales were spotted north near Vancouver.  Communicating with the other whale watching vessels helped inform our crew that the whales were actually heading closer to us near Saturna Island.  The excitement on the boat stirred like the nutrients upwelling in the currents of the Salish Sea.

We spotted three members of our Southern Resident orca community when we arrived at Monarch Head.  There was a female orca traveling with a subadult and a calf.  Our good luck continued when we saw one of the whales breaching about 200 yards away, giving us a great view of its glossy belly.  As we followed the whales south we identified the male orca  J-26 “Mike”.  This 19 year old juvenile was given his nickname after the whale researcher Mike A. Bigg who passed away in 1991.

Our next stop was Turn Point on Stuart Island.  Captain Mike stopped the boat and I lowered our high-tech hydrophone into the water, enabling our lucky crew to hear the whales communicating.  Listening to their serenading vocalizations made for one of the most peaceful days I have experienced on the water.  Sunkissed and blissed we returned back to Friday Harbor.

Sally, Naturalist

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