Jordan | M/V Osprey | 07/28/2021 12:30pm
What a fantastic day out on the water! Somewhere wore their lucky whale socks because we saw not only one but two different species of whales!!
As the crew and I headed down south, we passed through the San Juan Channel. As we scanned the Lopez Island shoreline, we quickly found a humpback whale!!
The behemoth cruised through the water effortlessly as he headed out through turbulent waters to open sea. His breathe shot out high above the surface and he even flashed us his tail a few times! Beautiful sight.
Then we continued on and rounded the south end of the island. Continuing up the Rosario channel we found Orcas!! These whales gracefully meandered around the rocky shoreline looking for prey. As transient/Biggs killer whales, we knew they were searching for harbor seals, porpoises and sea lions.
Around the area, we spotted some harbor porpoises and they were definitely in the danger zone!! Eventually we realized we were watching two pods swimming together. We often see social behavior between groups of Orcas as they play, travel and hunt together. They have a very complex and deep social connection with each other so it was wonderful to see that in action.
It was fun trying to guess what they were doing and where they wanted to go next. We quietly sat in awe as we admired their effortless swimming.
Eventually, we headed back. We made a few stops as we found other wildlife like our gorgeous Steller sea lions. Luckily, they were far enough away from the killer whales to be out of harms way.
What a great trip!!