[Naturalist Sarah – 09/23/2017 – M/V Sea Lion – 12:00pm & 04:00pm]
With recent beautiful weather and the incredible wildlife sightings we made a late decision to add a sunset trip to our schedule. It was such a treat to spend even more time out on the water at this magical time of year.
12:00pm Whale Watch
We left Friday Harbor and headed east through Upright Channel… we had a report of Southern Resident killer whales travelling south through Rosario Strait. Working together with the other members of the Pacific Whale Watch Association we are able to share information on wildlife sightings.
After navigating inter-island, down and through Lopez Pass we found our way into Rosario Strait. We were surrounded by Southern Resident orcas! We had a wonderful encounter starting with the L55 “Nugget” and her family. The whales were in a breachy mood as they all travelled south. There was so much surface active behavior and the whales began to spread out as they got to the southern mouth of Rosario. As the whales rounded the bottom of Lopez Island they started acrobatically fishing.
After some great time spent with the orcas we headed back towards San Juan Island, finding Steller’s sea lions, harbor seals, and some great sea birds. By the end of the trip we had circumnavigated Lopez Island!
04:00pm Whale Watch
On our second trip of the day we headed north out of Friday Harbor, up through San Juan Channel. We rounded the north end of San Juan Island and ended up in the North end of Haro Strait. We pressed further south, making our way down island until we were even with Lime Kiln State Park. We found the orcas still spread out and foraging. We had an amazing encounter with the J17 matriline, especially with J17 “Princess Angeline” and her youngest daughter J53 “Kiki.” We worked our way south and encountered many more members of J and L pods.
To top off the evening we had wonderful looks at Steller’s sea lions, Dall’s porpoise, and the beautiful sunset!
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