Lauren | M/V Kestrel | September 18th, 2024 | 2:00 pm
Our 2:00 pm Kestrel tour was a perfectly well-rounded wildlife tour. We often see different species of whales and wildlife out on the water, but to see as much as we did today is rare. We saw species from three of the five major categories of marine mammals: cetaceans, pinnipeds and even a mustelid! We started our tour by heading south in San Juan Channel. Our first stop was to search the kelp bed off Turn Island for a rumored sea otter. Sea otters aren’t a species we regularly see on our tours, so it’s always a treat getting a glimpse of those furry critters. Sea otters have the densest fur in the animal kingdom and were hunted to almost extinction by the early 1900s. Luckily, they are slowly making a comeback here in the inland waters of the Salish Sea.
We continued into the Strait of Juan de Fuca to follow up on a Minke Whale report. We often call Minkes “Slinky Minkes” for their elusive behavior, and this Minke proved to be extra slinky. We got a few looks at this tiny baleen whale before heading northwest into the Haro Strait. We heard some murmurings of a killer whale near Discovery Island off the coast of Victoria. On our way to Discovery, we came across a huge aggregation of Harbor Porpoise. There were probably 50 animals swimming in different directions. One even breached right out of that water which is not something we see often. We usually only see these porpoise swimming in shoals of about 6 individuals, so it was thrilling to see a large group like this!
After our harbor porpoise party, we caught up with Bigg’s Killer Whale T49C/Nielson, a 26-year-old male killer whale who is often found traveling alone. The second we got on scene we were greeted with two huge peduncle throws! A peduncle throw is when a whale throws its tail sideways, slamming it into the water. We spent the majority of our afternoon observing T49C/Nielson as he headed south towards the Olympic Peninsula. On our way back to Friday Harbor we made one last stop at Whale Rocks to get a look at some Steller’s Sea Lions.