A Look Back At Our Fantastic Trip
[Naturalist Alexandria – 09/20/2017 – M/V Sea Lion – 12:00pm]
Our energetic group boarded Sea Lion on a crisp September afternoon, ready to explore the water surrounding San Juan Island to see what wildlife we could find! We ventured north and began our search for some awesome wild life!
Not long after leaving the harbor we were treated to some quick glances of a playful harbor porpoise frolicking in the waves as well as a harbor seal creating a small bait ball, a feeding frenzy amongst a group of birds floating on the surface of the water. It was quite a noisy thing to behold, but awesome to see!
We continued our way working North, and not long after stumbled upon some gorgeous Humpback Whales swimming! Having been the ones to find these gorgeous animals, we were the first boat ones on scene and were incredibly lucky to have these gorgeous whales all to ourselves!
Upon observing these graceful animals further we identified three Humpbacks each with unique characteristics that made it possible for us to identify them! We were excited to find that these gorgeous whales that we were spending our afternoon with were Heather, Divot, and Windy. We were able to tell by Heather’s white patches on the tips of her fluke, and Divot’s unique…. well divots on his flukes.
Naturalist Andrew and myself both were excited at such an incredible sighting of these whales! Since the depth of the water off Waldron Island in Boundary Pass where we were is fairly shallow, these whales were spending most of their time in view! We clocked their longest dives at around 2 minutes- which meant that we were treated with numerous views views of these whales every few moments!
What an absolutely fantastic humpback whale sighting!
Cheers! -Naturalist Alexandria