Olivia Ellman | M/V Sea Lion | September 4th, 2024 | 12:30 pm
Our Classic Whale Watch departed Friday Harbor today ready to search for some wildlife! We had great conditions as we set off into San Juan Channel, following up on some reports of whale activity to the north. Along the way we stopped at White Rocks to get some looks at a bunch of harbor seals relaxing in the sun! This was a great way to talk more about our ecosystem and see why the Salish Sea has such abundant wildlife. We continued north towards Saturna Island, which meant we were going to be going international for this whale watch! As we approached the Canadian border, we spotted the blows of the humpback whale up ahead and slowly cruised into the area.
As we got on scene, we got great looks at this whale surfacing and then taking a beautiful fluking dive! We started our timers and after about 7 minutes found our whale once again at the surface. We watched this humpback take fluking dives for some time, amazed at how close it stuck to its 7 minute dive times. Since we were getting great looks at this whale’s fluke or tail, we could identify this whale as BCX1920, also known as Octo! While the current was picking up a bit in this area, a group of harbor porpoises came past us as we waited for Octo to surface again, treating us to some great looks as they were surfing in the small waves.
Our humpback began taking some shorter dives and not staying at the surface as long, and right as we were getting ready to get our last looks, we got surprised by a surfacing quite close to our boat! Octo went on a quick dive alongside us, and soon surfaced again further off to the north. This was the perfect end to our time with this humpback, and we slowly began to leave the area heading south. We enjoyed a beautiful cruise back towards San Juan Island along Orcas Island, and ended another great day back in Friday Harbor.
Check out our SmugMug to see photos from our trips on M/V Osprey at https://sanjuansafaris.smugmug.com/.