Yesterday the M/V Sea Lion headed out on the water for a private charter. I love being a part of hosting these private events, as we can totally taylor the trip for whatever the groups are most interested in. Yesterday our group wanted to find as much wildlife as we possibly could, and wildlife we found! We left Friday Harbor and motored north. At Spieden Island we encountered a lively group of Steller's sea lions, and a number of bald eagles. As we headed further north up and around Stewart Island, we were treated to sweeping views of the landscape as well as to a visit by some Dall's porpoise bow riding! These porpoises are right around 7 feet long and can weigh up to 450lbs... I call them fat oreos due to their black and white coloration. After spending sometime with the porpoises we sped off in search of some humpback whales. We stubled upon two whales traveling together and lunge feeding: lifting their enormous heads out of the water, mouths wide open! We stayed with the humpbacks for a couple of dives, when we received word from a land-based spotter within our network of communication that he was looking at killer whales near Orcas Island! We quickly left the humpbacks in search of the orcas. This time of year killer whales are fairly hit or miss, and normally we are looking for transient, or marine mammal eating, killer whales, who tend to be a little bit wily and hard to predict. It was all hands on deck as we sought out these whales! Luckily we had Captain Brian "The Whalemaster" Goodremont at the helm and he skillfully found the needle in the haystack yet again. Arriving on scene it was immediately clear that we were looking at transients, and more specifically the T049A and the T123 family groups. We were the only boat on scene and enjoyed some quality time watching these beautiful whales romping around Skipjack Island just to the northwest of Orcas Island.
Naturalist Sarah, M/V Sea Lion, San Juan Safaris