(7/28/17- M/V Kestrel- 10AM)
Today we left Friday Harbor with no reports of whales in the area, not an uncommon occurrence out on the water. We cruised around and looked at some wildlife at Flattop Island, including a few bald eagles and a number of harbor seals with their pups. We then got a report of a humpback whale on the south side of Vancouver Island so we headed that way!
We got to the area of the whale sighting and watched as the humpback did a large number of shallow surfacing’s before raising its tail out of the water and going on a dive. It is always amazing to see such a large animal! We decided to head over the Race Rocks to look for additional wildlife where we got to see over a dozen Steller’s sea lions! Most of these huge animals have gone North to the beaches of Alaska for their breeding season. However, juveniles and males who don’t believe that they will be reproductively successful will hang around and not waste their energy on such a long voyage. We watched the 2500 pound creates sun bathing on the rocks.
We decided to get one more look at that humpback whale before heading back towards our dock and on our last look we got to see the underside of the whale’s tail. The underside of a humpback whale tail will have varied patterns of white, which is how we identify them as individuals, it’s like a fingerprint for them. After learning about whale identification we made our way back towards Friday Harbor. It was a beautiful sunny and breezy day out on the water in the Salish Sea!
Naturalist, Rachel