M/V Kestrel| Saturday, October 12th, 2019 | Naturalist Alexandria
We had a great day on the water today! As we headed out on M/V Kestrel the day was looking promising! What had started out as a bit of a gloomy and wet day had dried up, and there was even some sunshine peeking through the clouds!
We already had reports of orcas a bit west of Victoria, and lucky for us they were heading closer to us! We knew it was going to be a bit of a trek but we were more than ready for our adventure! We exited Friday Harbor and made a right hand turn heading south down San Juan Channel.
As we headed out we stopped at Whale Rocks off of Cattle Point and got some fantastic looks at the Steller sea lions hauled out. They growled and splashed and put on quite a great show!
Then we headed out into the Strait of Juan de Fuca and towards this report. In the distance we saw some of the boats Captain Pete had been communicating with about these reports and we knew we were close!
Once we got on scene we were so excited to know that we were with more than thirty Bigg’s Killer Whales hanging out in our area! We bounced around from family to family and got some incredible looks at these animals!
We spent a nice chunk of time with them and then it was time to peel off and head back to Friday Harbor. We began heading back, enjoying some gorgeous looks at Mt Baker on the way back!
What a great day! It is very rare that we get to see so many Biggs killer whales in one place!
Until Next Time,
Naturalist Alexandria