09/11/17- M/V Sea Lion- 12PM
Today we left Friday Harbor with reports that our resident whales were still in the area. We headed towards salmon bank, a common feeding place for the whales, to take a look.
We came across the five females and juveniles that make up the L12’s. The male of the family L41, was a little further South from the reset of the group. It is not uncommon for the whales to spread out long distances for feeding in order to cover more surface area. The youngest one in the group, L121 was present. He is just about two years old and couldn’t be cuter. We headed a little further West and saw L85, a fully grown 26-year-old adult male. Our guests really enjoyed seeing the difference between the 2-foot-tall female dorsal fin and 6-foot-tall male dorsal fin.
The whales then started moving North toward San Juan Island so we moseyed with them back towards Friday Harbor. The whales remained spread out but were all consistently traveling North. Our guests were lucky that they were able to spend so much time with the orcas.
On our way back towards Friday Harbor we spotted a bald eagle sitting at the top of a rock. A lot of our bald eagles have moved inland to scavenge on the salmon that have spawned and died in the streams, so it was a treat to see this individual hanging out in plain sight.
We couldn’t have asked for a better day out on the water and I’m sure our guests would agree with that sentiment.
Rachel A.