Alexandria | Tuesday April 16, 2019 | 12:00 | M/V Sea Lion
What an absolutely amazing trip! Today was quite the day!
When we hit the water this afternoon we were very excited to have two reports of orcas within our range. The first was a bit up north and the second was south of us. We decided to begin the trip by heading south and passing through the southern point of San Juan Island.
While we were heading south we were treated to some awesome views of eagles flying over us, as well as some Harbor Seals hauled out on some of the rocks right off Cattle Point. Once we were at Cattle Point we also got some fantastic views of the light house on the cape.
As we were heading out we decided to head north up the west side. We got some great views of South Beach as well as American Camp. Over the radio we learned that the orcas were now northwest of us so we headed toward Vancouver Island to meet up with them.
We ended up being able to see Victoria for a great part of this afternoon, which made for a gorgeous backdrop of our whale hang out!
Once we met up with these orcas we were excited to see that they were the T123’s which meant that they had a calf with them! And what an absolutely adorable calf this was! They did a series of baby breaches and belly flops- clearly enjoying the action- as were we!
We were lucky enough to arrive mid hunt and excitedly watched as these Transient, or Biggs Killer Whales took down a Sea Lion. After they had splashed around and tail lobbed many times they continued on. At this point we got some absolutely amazing views! We had completely turned off the engine for quite awhile now at this point and continued to have views that got better and better!
We all got absolutely incredible photos of these orcas, and even got to watch them hunt more! The crazy thing about today was that remnants of blubber and oil from their hunt were floating at the surface of the water attracting a plethora of birds on the surface.
As we were heading out we remarked at what an absolutely awesome time with those orcas we had just had! We weren’t quite done yet though! We stopped by Spieden Island to check out some deer and sheep before finishing circumnavigating San Juan Island and returning back to Friday Harbor after a fantastic trip!
Until Next Time,
Naturalist Alexandria