Saturday, June 2, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 Noon
When Captain Gabe, lead naturalist Captain Sarah, new naturalist Jordan, and I pushed off the docks this afternoon, we never could have imagined the incredible sight we were about to witness. There were reports of orcas to the north, so, leaving the marina we turned left up San Juan Channel. Just as we rounded Point Caution we spotted a bald eagle perched atop a conifer overlooking the sea and stopped to get a closer look.
We then continued up the channel and made our way past Flattop Island to White Rock, a small outcropping which was littered with harbor seals basking in the sun. These wee rock sausages are the main food source for Bigg’s killer whales in the Salish Sea and yet the critters are at their carrying capacity in this ecosystem, with an estimated population of 300,000 in these inland waters.
Setting our sights once more on the northern horizon we made our way across the US/Canada border and met up with a large group of Bigg’s killer whales which were travelling east along the southern side of Saturna Island. As these whales headed past Boiling Reef, a common harbor seal and Steller’s sea lion haul-out, they picked up speed and took a dive. We initially thought they might hunt a nice pinniped for lunch, an impressive sight to behold, but instead we noticed that two humpbacks which had been travelling up into the Strait of Georgia suddenly changed course and were now swimming straight for the orcas!
One of the families of orcas, the T65As, which has in its group an infant swam away south, without the eldest male, as the rest of the orcas and the two humpbacks faced off. Now, it’s difficult to say from the surface what is happening underwater. It could have been that the orcas were harassing the humpbacks, or perhaps the humpbacks, as they have recently been known to do, were acting altruistically and saving a seal or sea lion from the grasp of these killer whales; but, whatever it was that was happening under the waves, from above what we saw and heard were flailing whale parts, giant splashes, and a loud trumpet from a humpback whale!
After about a half hour this encounter petered off as the orcas continued south to rejoin their cohorts and the humpbacks headed north again, synchronizing their surfacings and regaining their calm. With lasting goosebumps and lifelong memories from watching this encounter, the M/V Sea Lion headed back south towards Friday Harbor.