Alexandria | Saturday, June 1, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30 PM
What a beautiful evening! The sun was shining, our group was ready to get on the water, and water was beautiful and glassy- it was the perfect beginning to our sunset evening Class Whale Watch.
We boarded M/V Sea Lion, excited about such gorgeous weather and ready to explore the area to see what we could find. We started heading north out of Friday Harbor and headed up San Juan Channel. As we were working our way up North Captain Pete heard a report of some Biggs Killer Whale pretty far north of us. We decided it was definitely worth the trek and started heading up to Swanson Channel!
As we were approaching this group we were so excited to see that one of the individuals was a newer calf that had been born with Leucism. This was exciting for us because there had been reports back in November about this calf, but until the last few days there had been no further sightings of this individual.
Once on scene it was clear that this calf certainly did appear much lighter than the other orcas they were with. The light gray coloration is very unique in orcas- in fact reports suggest that it has been close to ten years since this trait has been seen in orcas.
Many of our guests got fantastic pictures of this family, and we all got amazing looks at the calf and his momma and siblings! We were able to spend a nice chunk of time with them before it was time to head back down starting for home.
Throughout this trip we were also lucky enough to see some Harbor Seals hauled out on some rocks, and a few eagles! It was quite a beautiful evening! As we were returning back into harbor we were all treated to an absolutely gorgeous sunset to finish off what was already a perfect trip!
Until Next Time,
Naturalist Alexandria