We had a beautiful, full day of whale watching on the M/V Sea Lion yesterday. With three trips planned, we had the opportunity to spend the day all around the islands in search of our marine mammal friends. On our morning trip, we made a turn down south, basking in the views of Griffin Bay, Cattle Point, Cape San Juan, and American Camp before arriving near Eagle Point. Surprise, surprise...Spirit and Solstice were in the area! This mom and adult son pair have been foraging for salmon in this particular area for several days now. Solstice is easily identified by his seemingly massive dorsal fin, towering over his mother's as they both slice through the water on a quest to fill their bellies. We had some beautiful views of these two before venturing a bit further west to hang out with some other members of L-pod.
On trip number two, it was time to adventure north. With reports of transients up above San Juan Island, we were eager to head up there and see if we could spot some of our marine mammal eaters. Sure enough, off of Pender Bluffs on North Pender Island, we were excited to see some misty blows of the T65A family! The matriarch of this group, T65A, has four offspring, and we saw them all - the oldest being around 12, and the youngest just over 2 years. The entire family was swimming in a very close formation, most likely resting as they continued to head further north. It was epic to see both our residents and transients in the same day, and waas incredibly difficult to have to say goodbye as we peeled ourselves a way to make it back to the harbor in time for our next trip.
Trip number three led us back down south, past Eagle Point this time, where we encountered a variety of L-pod members, including a very playful breaching calf! This little guy had all sorts of energy - did Mom just give him a nice big meal of milk? - and was splashing around all over the surface. It was a delight to see one of the greatest displays of orca joy.
All in all, a successful full day out here on the water - L-pod whales and transients too, there's never any end to the excitement!