[Sarah – 05/12/2018 – M/V Sea Lion – 12:00pm]
We had a lovely day out on the water full of wildlife and enlightening ecological discussion. Leaving the dock we steered the M/V Sea Lion north through San Juan Channel towards the Canadian Gulf Islands. We took a break in our journey north to check out some Steller’s sea lions hauled out on the rocks at Green Point, before pressing further on in our journey. Communicating with all of the other boats on the water, we decided to take an inter-island route to continue our search pattern. We had just ducked our bow into Plumper Sound between the Pender Islands and Saturn Island, when we got the call from a member of our spotting network… a whale!
We turned around and headed Southeast to the report of a humpback whale in Boundary Pass making lazy circles and feeding. We got to watch as the enormous animal surfaced and dove several times… lifting its immense tail into the air. In looking at the whale’s unique dorsal fin shape, as well as the unique pattern of its tail, we realized that we were looking at BCX1210 “Slate,” who has become a local here in the Salish Sea over the last few weeks.
After a great encounter with the humpback, we meandered our way back towards San Juan Island, enjoying the scenery and wildlife along the way!
Enjoy some photos from the day!
