Aboard Kestrel, Captain Gabe, myself and a full boat of excited guests, headed out for our second trip of the day! We had reports of Transients orcas down south and were curious to see what group of whales were present. We had been with a group of Southern Resident Orca earlier that morning and now were hoping to encounter some other killer whales! It’s crazy to think that in just one day, we can see two different ecotypes of killer whales in the inland waters!!
We headed down the San Juan Channel in very calm waters and crossed Cattle Pass with no problem. This area can sometimes get nasty depending on where the wind is coming from and what the tide is doing! As we spit out into the Haro strait, we could see some boats in the distance and headed towards them. With our eyes on the water, we spotted some spouts and some dorsal fins. One of them being particularly big! As we approached closer, this big male was identified as T175, a rare visitor in our inland waters who has been hanging around this area for a couple of weeks. He’s always a pleasure to watch as his massive and curved dorsal cuts the surface. There was a group of about 6 whales and they seemed to be foraging, changing directions quite often. We took many good looks and were even able to hear their breathing!
Peeling off these orcas, we headed east towards salmon banks where a humpback whale had been seen. We scanned the waters for a while looking for any spouts or flukes out in the distance with no luck! but right before giving up, some boats west had found another humpback! Captain Mike quickly headed back west to see this animal. Once we arrived, after patiently waiting a couple of minutes- WHOOSH! there was the tall spout and little dorsal of the humpback whale, believed to be Scratchy. Staying with him for a good bit was worth it because he showed us his fluke twice when taking a deep dive.
After watching Scratchy head west and into the strait of Juan de Fuca, we turned around and headed the opposite way towards the harbor. On the way in we stopped to observe hundreds of seals poking their head up and then back down in a natural fishing pool. This was so much fun! There was so many of them and they didn’t seem to be bothered by our boat but instead very curious! What a wonderful day on Kestrel!
Mariana, Naturalist, San Juan Safaris