(06/17/2017 -Sea lion 01:30 pm Departure)
Today we left Friday Harbor only needing to travel about 10 minutes before reaching our first pod of whales! We first encounter a group of transient, or mammal eating orcas, on the Eastern side of San Juan Island. These whales were specifically the T36A’s as well at the T65B’s. These two families were seen traveling together throughout the entire day today and we were lucky enough to see them complete a kill and engage in some social behavior. We saw some tail slaps and even a breach! There were more whales to be seen in the area so we headed South towards another report. We made it around the South side of San Juan Island and saw a majority of the Southern resident killer whales of L pod. This is only the second day they have been back into the area this season, so seeing these whales again is a very exciting site. The whales were pretty spread out when we came into the area, most likely looking for some yummy salmon to eat. We watched as the dispersed whales communicated with each other using tail slaps. We shut our motors off and watched the whales for a bit when all of a sudden the family of L12’s changed direction and headed right for our boat. We then got an amazing pass by of the L12’s, which included the largest southern resident L41 Mega, where we could see them swimming underneath the water and then surface next to our vessel. The whales then grouped up together and traveled as a cohesive unit. After getting to spend an ample amount of time with L pod we headed towards the whale rocks to look for some remaining Steller’s sea lions. Thankfully there were some there and while we were watching them the two transient pods from earlier passed right by, heading South. We got another look at those mammal-eating whales before turning around and heading back towards our dock. I don’t believe that anyone walked off of the boat disappointed today, captain and crew included!