Olivia Ellman | M/V Sea Lion | September 5th, 2024 | 12:30 pm
With a boat full of excited passengers, our afternoon trip aboard the M/V Sea Lion left the heat of Friday Harbor in search of a cool breeze and lots of wildlife! We began by heading east, loosely following the ferry route towards Anacortes in pursuit of some rumors of whale activity. We traveled interisland and got some quick looks at some harbor porpoises along the way. As we passed in between Blakely and Decatur Islands, we slowed down for some closer looks at a small island with a group of harbor seals hauled out. These seals were relaxing in the sun, and we watched a few of them climb in and out of the water. This was an exciting sign of our productive ecosystem, and got us talking about their role in the food chain as the number one food source for our population of Biggs/Transient Killer Whales.
Speaking of Bigg’s Killer Whales, we didn’t have to travel far from the harbor seals before finding a group of three traveling nearby! As we got on scene, we recognized the familiar dorsals of T19 Nootka and her two sons T19B Galiano and T19C Spouter! It’s always exciting to see this family around, especially since both boys are fully grown males with very large dorsal fins. We watched them travel along Blakely Island, and got some beautiful looks as they made a few closer passes towards us. After a little while, Galiano split off from his mom and brother, traveling closer to shore while the other two remained very close together. We speculated what this might mean, but soon enough he began to rejoin them and they continued on towards Orcas Island to the north. At this point we said goodbye to our family of three and turned west into Obstruction Pass to begin our cruise home to Friday Harbor.
Check out our SmugMug to see photos from our trips on M/V Osprey at https://sanjuansafaris.smugmug.com/.