Lauren | M/V Sea Lion | Monday, April 7th | 12:30 pm
Our Classic Whale Watch & Wildlife tour left the dock and headed north in San Juan Channel. Rain was in the forecast, so we prepared for a wet ride, but thus far the skies above looked clear. Our first stop was to the Cactus Islands to view some hauled-out harbor seals. We love seeing harbor seals out here. Their thriving population is a product of the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act. Before 1972, many pinnipeds were killed for their pelts. Luckily today, it is illegal to kill marine mammals on the United States. Their success story is thought to be the reason we see so many Bigg’s Killer Whales in the Salish Sea today. 70% of our Bigg’s Killer Whales diet is made of harbor seals.
We continued north across Boundary Pass and into the mouth of Bedwell Harbour. We had finally made it to our destination. We welcomed our guests to Canada and started scanning around for dorsal fins. We alerted them that we were about to be on scene with a Bigg’s Killer Whale family known as the T049A’s.
The T049A’s are made up of:
- T049A/Nan — female, born in 1986
- T049A1/Noah — male, born in 2001
- T049A2/Jude — male, born in 2007
- T049A3/Nat — male, born in 2011
- T049A4/Neptune — male, born in 2014
- T049A5/Nebula — female, born in 2017
- T049A6/Charlie II — born in 2022
T049A1/Noah and T049A2/Jude were not seen traveling with the family today, which is not out of the ordinary for these two boys. We observed these 5 whales as they cruised down the coastline of South Pender Island. Of course, the second we got on scene the rain started coming down. We got several great looks at this family of 5 before pulling off and heading back south. We made one last stop at Green Point to look at some Steller Sea Lions before making our way back to the dock. Thank you, “Nan” and fam, for such a great day on the water.