[09/5/17- M/V Sea Lion- Kelsey, Naturalist- 1:30PM]
Smoke and clouds were overcasting the skies today, but luckily that provided for some awesome whale watching! The seas were glassy, there was no glare from sunlight, and looking for dark whale bodies surfacing for air against a light gray sea was easy as pie.
M/V Sea Lion departed Friday Harbor and headed south through Cattle Pass and towards Salmon Bank. A “bank” is what we refer to as a shallow portion of water out here in our seas. We were travelling in only about 50 feet of water on average, today. There are even portions of Salmon Bank that only reach about 15 feet in depth! Baleen (or filter-feeding) whales, sea birds, and harbor porpoise love these banks, because there are a lot of fish that collect here. The shallow water provides kelp forests and eel grass beds, which are great nurseries and homes for lots of schooling fish. This is like a buffet for wildlife! And today, we got to see a minke whale!
Minke whales can sometimes be hard to track. They don’t always follow a consistent path of travel, and sometimes they take longer dives. They also have long, torpedo-shaped bodies that aren’t always easy to spot on days that have choppy water. But, today was our day! We had such calm water and little glare that it was easy to spot the minke, AND it surfaced a ton and kept a consistent pattern of travel. It even pointed its face above the water from time to time!
We also got a great chance to see some Stellar’s sea lions warming up on Whale Rocks, and there were seabirds galore, including common murres, glaucous-winged gulls, pelagic cormorants, and rhinoceros auklets. It was such a great day to spend time in the Salish Sea and to watch amazing wildlife!