Olivia Ellman | M/V Osprey | September 2nd, 2024 | 12:30 pm
Our whale filled holiday weekend continued today with another great trip on the M/V Osprey! We left Friday Harbor with some reports of killer whales to the north, so that’s where we began our search. We took a left out of the harbor and headed up San Juan Channel towards Spieden Island. We stopped nearby Spieden to look at some adorable harbor seals hauled out on a small island, getting great looks at the many different colors of each one and seeing first hand why we lovingly call them rock sausages. After admiring them, we continued southwest towards Henry Island and soon caught up to the whales we had been hearing about.
The whales we found turned out to be a family of Bigg’s Killer Whales, who were quickly identified as the T109A matriline! This family is made up of mom T109A Frio and four of her calves, with the oldest being a male born in 2012 and the youngest born in 2021. We love seeing this family in our waters and got great looks as they patrolled the shoreline along Henry. We followed along with them as they continued traveling north, eventually turning away from Roche Harbor and moving towards Spieden and Stuart Islands. As we sat with our engines off, we got to hear their beautiful exhalations and admire them a bit closer as they swam past us. Before we knew it we had to begin our journey back towards Friday Harbor, so we waved the whales goodbye as they traveled west. We slowly cruised along Spieden Island in search of any other wildlife and got some looks at a bald eagle nest and many Mouflon Sheep! This was a great last stop to end our final trip on Osprey for the season.
Check out our SmugMug to see photos from today’s trip at https://sanjuansafaris.smugmug.com/.