*/
[06/06/2017 ~ 1200 SL]
Ah, a bright sunny day with clear skies and calm waters, ripe with potential for whale and wildlife viewing. Captain Pete and his trusty crew of two, naturalists Kelsey and Sarah, set off with their boat of eager whale-watchers to see what the waters had in store for them today. Little did they know, rumors of a rare visitor to our waters were being murmured over the captains' radios, hinting at tall blows on the northwest side of Henry Island.
The crew and passengers set off the dock just like any other day, hoping to catch a family of orcas as they rounded the west side of San Juan Island around Lime Kiln Lighthouse. Almost three-quarters of the way there, these previous rumors were actualized - a small whale-watching vessel that had left dock before us stopped us in our tracks with news of an exciting possible sighting one mile from us. A gray whale! One of the rarest baleen whales in our waters, and a first for one of our naturalists. Gray whales are benthic feeders, preferring the soft, sandy ocean floors of the open ocean to our rocky channels, but alas, there she blew, a little gray whale.
Because gray whales feed on the ocean floor, their skin quickly becomes rough and calloused, and will pick up barnacles, whale lice, and other parasites easier than other whales. This presents itself as white patches and marks on their gray skin, making them look almost mottled from afar. This whale, however, was so covered in callouses and parasites that it appeared to be pure white on the majority of its head. It glowed green under our murky, phytoplankton-rich waters, helping us track it as we moved slowly alongside its northern trajectory. It's surfacings were marked by graceful fluke-out dives, showing off a mostly-white tail as it dove deeper underwater. What this young gray whale lacked in size, it made up for in unique and striking coloration. And no, it wasn't an albino sperm whale that had previously taken out an old sea-captain's leg. But there it was, nonetheless, a white whale.
The rest of our trip was equally as exciting, and included watching feeding and play behavior from the T65A's, a transient orca family group frequently spotted in our waters. We also saw a mating pair of bald eagles cozied up atop and evergreen tree on our way back, just to top off the day!
