Olivia Ellman | M/V Osprey | August 30th, 2024 | 12:30pm
Today was another beautiful day to be out on the water searching for wildlife! We left Friday Harbor with some exciting reports ahead of us, so we began by heading east along the ferry route between Shaw and Lopez Islands. As we traveled along Decatur Island, we were happy to find the whales we had heard about earlier, which ended up being Bigg’s or Transient Killer Whales! This family of three turned out to be the familiar dorsals of the T18 matriline, made up of mom T19 Nootka and her two sons T19B Galiano and T19C Spouter! Both boys are fully grown at the ages of 28 and 23, and have very large, distinct dorsal fins. It was very exciting seeing this family traveling together up the Rosario Strait, and we got great looks at them with the beautiful backdrop of Mount Baker. The group began traveling a bit faster and spreading out as they continued traveling north, so we followed along until reaching Obstruction Pass where we said goodbye to the whales and turned back to the west. As we transited back towards Friday Harbor, we saw harbor seals hauled out on small rocky islands, reminding us of why our Bigg’s population is thriving here. We traveled the rest of the way back to the dock with great spirits, finishing another amazing day out in the Salish Sea!
Check out our SmugMug to see photos of all the wildlife from today’s trip at https://sanjuansafaris.smugmug.com/.