Elle | M/V Kestrel | 9/26/2022 | 2:00PM
On today's Adventure Tour, we headed South out of Friday Harbor to look for wildlife. Just south of the harbor, we encountered a haul-out of harbor seals in San Juan Channel on some small rocky islands. The harbor seal population has grown significantly over the last few decades. At over 40,000 individuals in the Salish Sea, their population is at carrying capacity. This happened because of restoration efforts on eel grass, a critical habitat for small schooling fish, and because of the reduction of salmon as a competitor for food. Past the seals, we encountered double crested cormorants in their stick nests on Goose Island in the San Juan Channel. We headed out into the Strait of Juan de Fuca and found a humpback whale, identified as "Two Spot," an individual that has repetedly returned to the Salish Sea. "Two Spot" was feeling inconsistent this afternoon and took dives with varied lengths, coming up in a vastly different spot each time. It turned out that he made a huge circle over the course of an hour, maybe taking a hint from minke whales which always feed in a circular pattern in this same area. On our way back to the dock, we encountered some very curious and playful Steller's sea lions. These massive animals were diving and flopping and playing in the kelp around our boat and looking right at us with curious eyes. What a special encounter!