[Sarah | 05/03/2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00pm]
We had an incredible day on the water today from Friday Harbor. This time of year the we say that the chances of seeing orcas are 50-60%, but we have been having a spectacular early season seeing whales on over 80% of our trips. Though it doesn’t happen every day, before we even left the dock we had a report of some killer whales close by in San Juan Channel!
Captain Brian, Captain Erick, and I decided to head south out of Friday Harbor towards Griffin Bay. As we rounded Turn Island we started to see blows, or exhalations, above the surface of the water. The reported group turned out to be a group of seventeen Bigg’s killer whales from at least four different family groups traveling together. Bigg’s killer whales are marine mammal eaters are known for their stealthy behavior. Typically these sneaky whales travel in groups of three to six individuals, so a group of seventeen is enormous! We watched as the whales surfaced sleepily in a resting group, we even got to see one individual spyhop, or stick its head out of the water. Probably my highlight of the day was seeing all the new calves in the group, five out of seventeen individuals were under two years old!
After a great encounter with the killer whales we decided to head south towards Cattle Pass to look for some other wildlife. We wove our way through the crazy tidal fluctuation towards whale rocks, where we encountered a group of Steller’s sea lions hauled out on the rocks. These huge mammals are the largest sea lions on the world. Seasonal visitors to the San Juan Islands, the Steller’s sea lions will start making their way north in the next few weeks for their breeding and pupping season.
In addition to the sea lions we also got a chance to see some bald eagles as well. Bald eagles are our most common raptor species in the islands. With a six-foot wingspan and their striking adult plumage, bald eagles are very impressive! We got to see an adolescent eagle perched on the rocks amongst the sea lions, and then we made our way over to Long Island where we found two adult eagles perched in trees.
Overall it was an amazing day filled with amazing wildlife!