Erick | 7/8/18 | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30PM
This Sunday, Captain Mike, Rachel and myself took a great big group of folks out on M/V Sea Lion. We headed north through San Juan Channel and headed around Waldron Island and across Boundary Pass. We passed East Point on Saturna Island and as we continued into the Strait of Georgia we began to see blows in the distance. As we approached we could see that it was a pod of orcas! And as we spent more time with them we saw that they were Transient/Bigg’s Orcas. These are the ecotype of orca that lives in this area that preys on Marine Mammals. They are a little bit bigger than the Residents and usually travel in smaller groups. As we watched these zig and zag in the constant currents around East Point we saw that they were the T124A’s and the T36A’s travelling together. Their dive patterns and the fact that we kept seeing HArbor Porpoises - a common prey species - in the current too might point to the orcas actively hunting. We watched them do this for a while and the younger ones in the group - the youngest being 3 years old - was very interested in doing slight chin slaps sometimes too! We were with these families for awhile as they hunted and traveled further south and we eventually left them as they approached Patos Island. We headed back towards Friday Harbor but not before we made a stop at Skipjack Island to look at the large group of Harbor Seals and several Bald Eagles on this wildlife refuge.
Woo whale folks that’s it for today,
Naturalist Erick
San Juan Safaris