Kelly | M/V Osprey | April 19th, 2025 | 12:30pm
The sun began to peak out from behind the clouds just as we turned left out of Friday Harbor. Heading up San Juan Channel, past Flattop Island and into Boundary Pass we investigated a humpback whale report. After a moment of searching in the general area, the whale appeared! A small slinky humpback came up for a breath. His pattern was to come up for a couple quick breaths and then down on a long dive. These dives ranged from 5 to 11 minutes. One surfacing in particular gave us an awesome look at his bumpy grey skin, the light hitting it just right to see every contour.
We left the juvenile humpback and headed toward Spieden Island. Spieden was teaming with wildlife! I lost count on the number of bald eagles we observed! These striking raptors occupied the skies and sat perched in trees and grassy hillside. The non-native mouflon sheep were also abundant, frolicking in the abundant wildflowers growing on its south western facing side. Of course, we had to stop at Greenpoint (Spieden’s southern tip) to check out the ever charismatic stellar sealions.
Just as we began to head back down San Juan Channel, a report came in, 4 killer whales to the north. We love a last minute whale surprise! We made our way across the Canadian border to the shoreline of South Pender Island. The family of Bigg’s killer whales was identified as the T65B’s.
- T65B Chunk 1993 F
- T65B1 Birdsall 2011 M
- T65B2 Nettle 2019
- T65B3 Rook 2023
We watched the family take their time making their way west, loosely following the South Pender shoreline.