09/10/17- M/V Sea Lion- 12PM
Today our guests were lucky enough to spend some time with our southern resident killer whales. These animals were not in the area for 29 days prior to their recent arrival, so our guests were exceptionally fortunate to get to hang out with them.
The orcas were on the south side of San Juan Island, near false bay, so we headed around San Juan channel and stopped at whale rocks to see some harbor seals and Steller’s sea lions. We are finally seeing our Steller’s back in the area, they spend the summer months up in Alaska for their breeding season and the rest of their time here in the Salish Sea.
We then got towards the Southwest side of San Juan Island where we got to see part of the L pod whales, specifically the L4 family. That family consists of 9 whales which are all related, the youngest being a two-year-old.
The whales were spread out searching for salmon in the area. These whales spend over 80% of their time either feeding or looking for food, so that is not an uncommon thing for us to see. They are looking for Chinook salmon, which is the largest and the fattiest of the salmon species. Our Chinook run has been at a record low this year so these whales have to spend even more time searching for their food.
At the end of our viewing we were lucky enough to see the whales group up together and travel in close proximity to one another. It was beautiful to see the whole family surface together as a group.