M/V Sea Lion, Captain Craig, Naturalist Andrew and myself had a busy day out on the water! With a full boat on our 1:30 trip we ventured north to avoid the fog down south. Heading north turned out well because we were able to see some Harbor Porpoises along the way! We ran into a small group but in this group were little ones. Andrew and I believe that we were looking at some juvenile porpoises. On the way down to the Orcas it started to rain, but that didn't stop our guests from being outside to view them! When we first got to the area, the Residents were spread out and broken up into smaller groups! We hung out with a group further offshore. After awhile we started to head south and ran into another group! This group was a little more active with tail slaps and breaches! We continued south to head home!
On our second trip we headed south right away because the Resident Orcas made it down to Salmon Bank. The rain cleared, along with the fog, and our guests were able to get great views of the different small groups of Orcas! These small groups had a pattern to how they were arranged, one or two males, a female, and maybe a calf. Andrew and I started to realize this pattern and started to watch intently to their behaviors. What we were seeing was very common for when there is a superpod, but we were specifically seeing males trying to impress the females! Andrew and I felt as those we entered mating territory at one point during the trip. It was very cool to see and show our guests! Like our morning trip, the Orcas were very spread out and in these small groups, which made it nice to move around and check out other whales. At one point our guests got to see a Minke surface! As we headed back toward San Juan Island, everyone was able to see more and more groups and all these groups were very active. We saw a lot of pectoral fin slaps, tail slaps, breaches, and spyhopping! I always love being able to see our Resident Orcas and being able to show our guests them. Today seemed extra special because we had all three pods here and everyone was able to see just how many Orcas we have here!
Aimee-Naturalist, M/V Sea Lion
San Juan Safaris