[Friday, 9/7/18, M/V Kestrel]
On Friday, Captain Mike and I took a group out to look for some amazing wildlife in the Salish Sea. We headed north towards the outer islands of the San Juan Islands. As we cruised north we saw a lot of Harbor Porpoises darting through the eddies around Green Point. Next, we headed further north. We headed around East Point where there is a a large number of pinnipeds! Pinnipeds are the seals, sea lions, and walruses of the world. Here we only have seals and sea lions (eared seals). At East Point on Saturna island there is a good number of Harbor Seals and Steller Sea Lions. It’s always so much fun to see the massive Steller Sea Lions growl and waddle around. The males can weigh over a ton and be over 11 feet long! Next we headed further north into the Strait of Georgia to see what other marine mammals we could find. As we traveled by Tumbo Island and got into the area of the Belle Chains - a small line of sandstone islets.
Here we saw in the distance some blows. We approached slowly and soon saw that it was a group of orcas (killer whales)! It was a group of Transient (Bigg’s) Orcas. This is one of the two types of orcas that we often see in the inland waters. They usually travel in smaller groups and feed on marine mammals - like seals! This group was hunting seals in the Strait of Georgia. We watched them for awhile and then moved a little further north and saw another Transient Orca family! It’s amazing watching different families hunt. Each family often has their own hunting tactics which they employ and pass down from generation to generation. Whale folks, that it’s for today!
Naturalist Erick