Olivia Ellman | M/V Osprey | August 29th, 2024 | 12:30pm
Happy Friday from the M/V Osprey! Our afternoon trip began by heading south out of Friday Harbor, following San Juan channel down to Cattle Pass. We stopped near Cattle Point for some looks at a group of harbor seals relaxing in the sun, and even saw a Stellar’s Sea Lion swimming by! We continued past Cattle Point Lighthouse and turned west, and as we traveled across Salmon Bank we spotted a Minke Whale! This elusive baleen whale, lovingly known as a slinky minke, treated us to a few great looks before disappearing once again. We didn’t stay too long with this minke since we had received reports of a few killer whales closer to Victoria, BC, so we pushed on hoping our luck would continue.
After a bit more travel up the Haro Strait, we saw a few boats ahead of us. As we slowed down, we saw two large dorsals break the surface and were excited to see we had caught up to the whales we were searching for! We quickly determined these as Bigg’s or Transient Killer Whales, the marine mammal eating eco-type of the area, and could also tell these were our favorite brothers Onca and Lynx (T60D and E) of the T60 matriline! These brothers are well known in the area, and travel together without the rest of their feline-named family. The boys were slowly traveling north and we got beautiful looks at their large dorsal fins as they surfaced together, lining up perfectly with the stunning Mount Baker in the background. We were able to spend a good amount of time watching them travel and talking about killer whale behaviors and life history before it was time to head back towards San Juan Island. We ended our trip with a stop at Whale Rocks to see many more Stellar’s Sea Lions hanging out together, which was a perfect way to end this sunny, multi-species day on the water!
Check out our SmugMug to see photos of the wildlife from today’s trip at https://sanjuansafaris.smugmug.com/.