Maxx K. | M/V Kestrel | 04/23/2022 | 1:30pm
Well today was exciting, to say the least! Kestrel flew out of Friday Harbor and turned right, taking a brief moment to observe a bob of Harbor Seals (yes, the collective noun of seals is a bob. How fun!) hauled out on the rocks just beyond turn island. There must have been 30 seals on this rock, each with its own unique grey, black, speckled, or spotted coat. We continued zooming through the San Juan Channel and out past Cattle Point lighthouse. Now over the Juan de Fuca, we had a good bit more journeying to do- a family of Bigg’s Killer Whales had been spotted traveling eastward, past Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula and towards Whidbey Island.
It didn’t take too long to arrive on scene, with a smattering of blows appearing at our twelve o’clock. We were now in the presence of the T036s. T036, or “Flapjack” as she’s been nicknamed, was the 36th Transient Killer Whale observed here and was assumed to have been born sometime at or around 1970. Through her life she’s been assumed to have had at least five children and a grandmother to fifteen! We journeyed with her family for roughly half an hour, getting incredible looks as they surfaced just in front of Dungeness Spit Lighthouse. They moved in unison, surfacing with expert coordination and continuing their travels eastward.
We left them soon to follow up on reports of a grey whale that had been observed foraging at the mouth of Discovery Bay. Its distinct heart-shaped blow appeared along the horizon first. This massive animal rounded its body at the ten feet at a time, before taking shallow dives to forage off the seafloor once again. With every long dive it flashed us a quick glimpse of its fluke, indicating it would be another four to five minutes before we would catch another look again.
Kestrel admired the whale for a few moire surfacing before making the long trek back home to Friday Harbor, of course making one final pit-stop to hang out with the Steller sea lions that occupied Whale Rocks. Thanks so so much for all of y’all who joined us out on the water today, it was truly a blast!