Piper | Sunday, July 21, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30 PM
Today’s afternoon Classic tour aboard the M/V Sea Lion was crewed by Captain Pete, Jordan, and me! We had an awesome group of folks today with lots of families who asked some really great questions! We left the docks in Friday Harbor and headed north in San Juan Channel towards the top of San Juan Island, where we crossed to the west side of the island where a group of Bigg’s killer whales we reported to be hanging out!
When we arrived we were able to verify the identity of these orcas as the T46B’s, a group of lovely sisters, led by mom, with a couple grandkids in tow! There are eight orcas in this group total, and one of the newer orcas is known as T’luk, meaning moon in Bella Coola! This orca is quite quite and we believe this wee whale is leucistic! Leucism is a condition similar to albinism, except instead of lacking all melanin, a leucistic animal is missing some of the cells that hold melanin, called melanocytes! So, he’s mostly white, but not aaaall the way—very cool!!
We got to watch this big ol’ family swim up through the Haro Strait for a while before we parted ways to search for other wildlife. We slowed down along the length of Spieden Island because it was rife with all sorts of animals! First we spotted many harbor seals resting along the shore, some accompanied by pups which have not yet weaned from their mama’s milk, and as we continued we spotted some mouflon sheep balancing on the steep rocky hillsides of the island! We slowly came up on a large group of big, big birds, quite a few turkey vultures and three bald eagles scavenging on what turned out to be the carcass of a mouflon ram! It was an amazing sight to be sure and a great way to end our tour before enjoying a lovely ride back towards the marina!