Lauren | M/V Kestrel | August 30th, 2024 | 10:00am
As many of our 10:00 am Kestrel tours start, we left the dock without a firm report of whales. Luckily, we are a part of the Pacific Whale Watch Association (PWWA), which is a private sightings network that includes professional whale watchers, researchers and biologists. In the morning, PWWA members will divide and conquer the different water ways and report our sightings. None of the whales we see out here are tagged, and we don’t use any kind of sonar to find them. We took a left out of Friday Harbor and went north in San Juan Channel. We quickly learned of a shore report near Johns Island. We zipped up to Johns and scanned along the shoreline. We made our way to Turn Point Lighthouse on Stuart Island and scanned in Boundary Pass. Two other PWWA vessels even joined us in our search, but still no joy. We decided to make a quick stop at Ripple Island to look at a bald eagle and some hauled out harbor seals. After our wildlife stop, we decided to cruise through Roche Harbor and Mosquito Pass. Although our searches to the north were not proving fruitful, thankfully some killer whales were picked up in Middle Bank. We picked up speed and cruised south down the Haro Strait. The whales that were found were 20-year-old T060D/Onca & 16-year-old T060E/Lynx. These two brothers are often found as a duo away from the rest of their family. They have an older brother and two younger sisters. Their three other siblings are normally found traveling with mom. We stayed with these boys as they headed west towards Victoria. Onca and Lynx then found their way into the Chatham islands, hugging the shorelines and swimming through kelp beds. These brothers were presumably looking for a tasty harbor seal. We left the boys and went around the south side of San Juan Island. We made one last stop at Whale Rocks to see some Steller’s Sea Lions before completing our circumnavigation of San Juan!