7/9/2022
Helena
MV Kestrel
2pm
The adventure tour this afternoon went north up San Juan Channel, through Speiden Channel and off the western coast of Stuart Island where we encountered not one but two Humpback Whales! This duo was actually a mother and her calf and the two were taking long (10-ish minute) dives heading south in the Haro Strait.
The population of humpbacks migrating to the Salish Sea every summer are coming to their feeding grounds here. They will eat up to 3,000 pounds of krill and small schooling fish every single day!! Come fall, these cetaceans will travel back south to the coasts of Maui or Baja California to their breeding grounds for the winter. We always love to talk about the “Humpback Comeback” of the Salish Sea over the last 25 years as prior to 1997, this population had been entirely wiped from this area as result of whaling in the early 1900s. As of a report from just this spring, there have been over 800 individual humpbacks returning to these waters to feed since 1997!
After spending time getting great looks at the stark contrast in size of fluke, blows and back length of these two humpbacks we ventured up to Mandarte Island. This small Canadian island is a large rock island east of Sidney B.C. and supports the largest bird colony in the area. We got great looks at hundreds of Pelagic Cormorants and Double-Crested Cormorants perched on their nests as well as Pigeon Guillemots and Harlequin Ducks at the rocky shoreline.
And just when we went to speed up our engines eastward towards Friday Harbor, a Sea Otter scurried up the northside’s sloped shoreline and into the short shrubbery! What a great unexpected treat to end another jam packed adventure in the San Juans.