Lauren | M/V Sea Lion | 3.24.2022 | 12:30 PM
As M/V Sea Lion headed out of Friday Harbor and into San Juan Channel, we were immediately greeted by four Steller’s sea lions swimming near the coast of Friday Harbor Labs. This “stellar” encounter set the mood for the rest of the trip. If having a wildlife encounter within the first 5 minutes of leaving the dock isn’t a good sign, then I don’t know what is!
As we headed north, we stopped in Rocky Bay and got some good looks at a handful of hauled out harbor seals and a bald eagle on O’Neal Island. Captain Eric and I spent time scanning in Spieden Channel, in the hopes of finding some Bigg’s killer whales making their way south. In the last several days there have been constant reports of Bigg’s north of Boundary Pass up in Canada. With no luck, we decided to make our way towards the only firm whale report in the area, a gray whale near Victoria.
This gray whale has made Victoria its home for the last several days, getting its fill on ghost shrimp after a long migration north. After getting a few good looks at this whale, we were off once again. We received word that there was a “T-Party” (a large group of Transient AKA Bigg’s killer whales) just east of Lopez Island. This party consisted of the T34s, T36As, T37s and T137s, a whopping 16 whales in total!
Already two hours into our trip, it was still up in the air if we were going to make it to these whales. If they continued their journey south, we wouldn’t have time to get to them, but if they decided to trend west, we still had a shot. It was now in the whales’ hands, or should I say fins…
As we approached the scene, we got word that the whales had split up, while the T37s continued south, the rest of the group started making their way west. We notified our passengers that they were indeed going to see killer whales today! Anticipation was high as the dorsal fins became visible. Our closest encounter was with the T34s. T34A1, born in 2019, stole the show as the little tyke porpoised out of the water several times. Short on time, we left the T34s and headed back toward San Juan Island, hoping more of the “T-Party” would grace us with their presence. We were lucky enough to see both the T36As and the T137s while on our journey home. We made a quick stop at whale rocks to view over 50 Steller’s sea lions and two bald eagles, and back to the harbor we went. Two species of cetaceans, plus three Bigg’s killer whale matrilines, equals one epic trip!