Laura / M/V Sea Lion / 3/12/2022 / 12:30 PM
Today was an adventurous day out on the water! The spring air was quite chilly, but the overcast skies made excellent viewing conditions to seek out exhalations. M/V Sea Lion headed northbound out of Friday Harbor and spotted a bald eagle right around Pt. Caution at the harbor’s entrance. We continued to Spieden Island and had an awesome sea lion encounter by Green Point! Steller sea lions were diving near the kelp beds, and we saw five or six sea lions directly off our bow. It was so great to see them so animated and showing off their natural behaviors to passengers. Spieden Island was filled with mouflon sheep and a beautiful fallow deer was sighted strutting near the boat launch on the southern side. Bald eagles were scattered around the surrounding islands and were spotted by passengers throughout the trip. As an avid birder, it was also a great day to check out rhinoceros auklets, pigeon guillemots, and western grebes.
This trip was also a great opportunity to check out the Canadian islands and Swanson Channel. The PNW can be beautiful under any weather conditions, and we had great visibility to see the Canadian Rockies and distant islands today. As we scanned Boundary Pass, the Haro Strait and Swanson Channel, we heard of a distant report of Bigg’s killer whales! Our Captain Brian immediately headed towards the report after a 2-hour search pattern. We arrived on scene near Saturna Island and were thrilled to see the T18’s!! This family is very popular in the Salish Sea, consisting of one of the oldest females in the Bigg’s population and one of the largest males! The family of 4 orcas consists of T18 (“Esperanza”, a female estimated around 1955), T19 (“Nootka”, a female estimated around 1965), T19B (“Galiano”, a male born in 1995) and T19C (“Spouter”, a male born in 2001). One of my favorite sights to see of these beautiful creatures is watching them slowly surface along a beautiful dark green island backdrop, exactly what we all were able to witness today. It was a full 4-hour trip today, and we hustled back to the harbor to make it back in the allotted time, but I am so happy and grateful Captain Brian gave it his all for guests to have this much-deserved orca encounter this afternoon. Thank you all for coming out with us on this exciting spring day!