Saturday, May 19th | M/V Sea Lion | Noon
On this sunny May day Captain Mike, naturalist Rachel and I headed north with a great group of folks, up through San Juan Channel and Boundary Pass, searching the Canadian waters under South Pender and Saturna Islands. We got all the way over to the east side of Tumbo Island, part of the Southern Gulf Islands, where we spotted a humpback whale traveling northwest along the coast.
When we saw this behemoth’s flukes we could tell it was a BCX whale, meaning that in the Center for Whale Research’s identification guide (BC) it had been certainly added to the group of whales which have mostly black flukes (X). We were unable to get a specific identification for this whale, but it treated us to a great sighting, nevertheless!
Pointing the Sea Lion southward again towards East Point we stopped to take in the sights of some of the remaining Steller’s sea lions which were hauled out on the east side of Boiling Reef, taking in the sun. We expect these animals to take off any day now toward their breeding grounds in Alaska, but we’re sure glad we can still watch some of the stragglers! On the west side of the rock laid some harbor seals which allowed for a great size comparison between those little nuggets and their massive cousins!
We made our way south through President Channel and were welcomed back into Friday Harbor by a glorious Saturday afternoon sun. What an absolute treat today’s trip was!