The day started off great! As we headed out into the San Juan Channel, Captain Mike, Naturalist Kevin and myself along with our eager guest came across our local Harbor Seals feeding in the amazing tidal rips that develop in the Cattle Pass area. We saw close to a hundred Harbor Seals!
From there, we heading out through Cattle Pass were we encountered at least a half dozen Minke whales. Minke whales are approximately 25-30 feet long and feed in the shallower waters off the south end of San Juan Island. Today we saw lot's of good lunge feeding behavior; we even had one whale that surprised us and surfaced within 20 feet of our boat. Amazing!
We left our Minke's and within 10 minuets we caught up with a very small group from L-Pod, the L-22's. This is a smaller group that is led by the mother L-22, Spirit, along with her two adult male offspring L-79, Skana, and L-89, Solstice. Male killer whales will mature around 18-20 years old, reaching a length of about 25 feet long.
Eventually we had to leave the L-22 group to head back to Friday Harbor. On our trip home however, we encountered a large group of Harbor Porpoise.
All in all, an amazing day on the water!
Heather, Naturalist
Sea Lion, San Juan Safaris