Olivia Esqueda | M/V Sea Lion | Thursday, September 19th, 2024 | 12:30pm
Today was such a fun tour bringing in all the fall vibes. We started off our trip by heading south through San Juan Channel, stopping briefly off Turn Island to see a Sea Otter floating around in the bull kelp reef. This gave us an opportunity to chat about how the increased sightings of sea otters in the last few years all circles back to sea star wasting disease. We love conversations showing how everything is connected throughout an ecosystem, even when it’s not always so direct.
We continued heading south of San Juan Island towards the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We knew there were some whale rumors a little further southwest towards Victoria, B.C., therefore, to give our guests the best chance of seeing whales for the day, we decided to brave the fog bank. Not only did we pass swimming Harbor Seals and Harbor Porpoise, but we also found the whales just as the fog lifted a little south of Discovery Island!
Here we spent time with two Bigg’s Killer Whales, also known as Transient Orcas, that are two brothers we commonly see traveling around together causing mischief- T060D [“Onca” born in 2004] and T060E [“Lynx” born in 2008]. This ecotype of killer whale is specialized to feed on marine mammals, primarily Harbor Seals.
It was a special day adventuring off to find whales and many other marine life, including multiple Lion’s Mane Jellyfish- probably the most I have ever seen in my six years out on the water! Spring and Fall truly are some of the best times to come out on the water and see a broad biodiversity of wildlife; we are looking forward to this home stretch of our tour season.