M/V Sea Lion | August 15th, 2019 | Naturalist Alexandria
What a fantastic day we had today! We rarely get to see our Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKWs) in our area, but today was a special day! We started out our trip so excited because we had report that our SRKWs had been spotted off the west side of San Juan Island!
We knew that we absolutely wanted to see them if at all possible, so we started our trip heading south down San Juan Channel. They were starting to swim north off of the west side of San Juan faster now, so once we rounded Cattle Point we began heading north up the west side. After 25 minutes or so we were able to meet up with them as they passed Lime Kiln State Park and continued to head north.
We whales for a half an hour or so, watching multiple breaches and a few tail slaps! We looked at the dorsal fins and saddle patches and were able to identify a few of the individuals, all appearing to be apart of J-Pod.
After we had spent our thirty minutes with these animals we thought since we were already so far north it would be a good opportunity to circumnavigate San Juan Island so we continued heading north. We stopped at Spieden Island and checked out some harbor seals, a bald eagle, and some of the numerous exotic wildlife that lives on Spieden Islands before starting our trek back to Friday Harbor.
What a great trip today!
Until Next Time,
Naturalist Alexandria