Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 07/21/19 | 5:30pm
Today was extraordinary. I had a fantastic group of people with me that just loved asking all the really good whale questions!
It all started as Captain Pete and I headed out of San Juan Island and into the San Juan Channel. We headed north and crossed under Speiden Island. Here we slowed and checked out some lovely wildlife.
We were able to spot mouflon sheep, fallow deer and harbor seals all along the shoreline of the island! It was crazy seeing exotic sheep in Washington.
Then we headed further north into Canada. We crossed Boundary Pass and boated past Moresby and Portland Island and into a little bay tucked up within Salt Spring Island. We were searching and searching for the whales until finally we found distance blows! Pete was very excited.
We boated closer and found an amazing family of orcas: the T46Bs. Then suddenly, they began acting extremely playful! It was crazy! All the whales swam really close together and a lot of them started rolling on their backs, rubbing against each other, spy hopping every few minutes and showing us their tails! It was amazing!
Then, we spotted an amazing and special whale called T46B1B! He has leucism! That means instead of having black coloration, he is light gray and white! Amazing! Very rare in the animal kingdom. This baby was just born less than a year ago and was just a ray of sunshine as he splashed around with his family today. He swam super close to mom as he socialized in his pod.
It was really fun to see all the whales relaxed and playing. Eventually we headed back towards the harbor as we all watched a great sunset. What a whaletastic day.