Yesterday, we saw a wide diversity of marine mammals. We cruised around the northern San Juan Islands and even went into the Gulf Islands of Canada for a quick bit. We saw a few Harbor Porpoise including a calf which was super tiny and super cute. We also saw several tons of Harbor Seals laying on the rocks around Flattop Island and swimming and twirling in the water. A young one pooped up and took a few minutes to check us out checking him out. We also saw all three species of the exotic species that were placed on Spieden Island for a Big Game Hunting farm. These are all large mammals tht usually have impressive horns or antlers that would look good on a wall in a hunting lodge. The species still on the island are a Mouflon Sheep, a Sika deer, and a Fallow Deer. And last but not least we saw a group of Steller's Sea Lions. These guys are giants, ahve huge flippers that they hold out of the water like they are waving, and do other goofy antics. One was resting on the shore line lazily scratching his belly on the rocks, while the others were rafting together in the kelp forest next to the point often sticking their huge heads and very fat necks out of the water to look back at us as well! It was a super biodiverse day and it will be interesting to see what different biodiversity we see as the seasons and weather changes!
Naturalist Erick
M/V Sea Lion