Piper | Friday, May 31, 2019 | M/V Kestrel | 11:00 AM
Heading out of Friday Harbor today there was a report of Bigg’s killer whales off Lime Kiln Lighthouse on the west side of San Juan Island so we headed south into San Juan Channel and it wasn’t long before we came upon a group of harbor seals hauled out on the rocks near Turn Island. While we were sitting there watching the little rock sausages, a few harbor porpoises quickly swam through the channel and we got to get a great look at these little guys. We continued down the channel and reached Whale Rocks in Cattle Pass and we saw that the colony of Steller’s sea lions that over-winter there are still around! You can tell it’s almost breeding season for these guys and that they’re starting to get a rise in testosterone because these big bulls were sparring, attacking each other with their massive teeth and jaws! We watched these massive sea lions for a while before we headed around the southern tip of San Juan Island and up into Haro Strait.
On our way past American Camp we came across two bald eagles which were attacking a juvenile seagull over the water!! We stopped the boat and observed them hunt down this seagull. One eagle was very active while the other circled overhead as backup. They clipped it a few times before the seagull rested on the water, which was its fatal mistake. The eagle swooped down and snagged it up! We followed the eagles over to San Juan Island where this (likely) mated pair sat on the rocks. The eagle that carried the seagull to shore sat on top of it, holding it down, it moved once, and we saw a burst of feathers shoot out from underneath it. After resting for a moment, they carried the seagull high up into the trees! Absolutely crazy. We continued up the shore to Lime Kiln Lighthouse, where we met up with a group of seven orcas.
After IDing these whales we discovered it was a group of three matrilines, the T65Bs, who have mom, her eight year old son and newborn; the T75Bs, who are mom and her four year old, and the T75Cs (T75B’s sister), consisting of mom and her newborn! This pack of matriarchs led their offspring from Lime Kiln up to Kellett Bluff before we parted ways, it was so cool watching these guys power through the water, on the hunt for some tasty seals. We motored north to Turn Point on Stuart Island where we came across a humpback whale called Divot (or BCX1057) who was swimming in the deepest part of the Salish Sea! Divot fluked a few times, taking deep dives toward the sea floor and we got some awesome views before turning back and motoring through Spieden Channel and down towards Friday Harbor! What an amazing tour!