Olivia Ellman | M/V Sea Lion | September 9th, 2024 | 12:30 pm
Today was a happy Monday aboard the M/V Sea Lion as we set out from Friday Harbor on our Classic Whale Watch. We had reports of a group of whales far in the north, so we headed in that direction up San Juan Channel to reach them. We traveled up the western side of Orcas Island, traveled a bit east, and then north between Sucia and Matia Islands. After a bit more travel north into the Strait of Georgia, we finally reached the scene of the report and could see the dorsals of a group of five Bigg’s/Transient Killer Whales! This group was a bit spread out so as we approached we ended up getting looks in the distance from both sides of our boat. This group ended up being identified at the T35A matriline, made up of mom Lester and her four calves Opal, Topaz, Garnet, and an unnamed two year old (T35A4).
For a while the whales seemed to be just traveling northwest, but everything changed when we saw a splash from one of them! Very shortly after this splash, another one in the family surprised us with a full body breach, and we were lucky to see this happen a few more times! At the same time, one of the members that had been further off our left side suddenly porpoised very quickly towards the rest of the family, so soon enough all five members were very close together. Just as we thought our luck couldn’t get any better, one of them poked their head up out of the water in a behavior called spyhopping! This was another behavior indicating this family had caught an early dinner and were getting ready to prey share together under the water. We watched as they circled around together, and then slowly continued traveling. At this point it was time for us to begin our trek back south towards San Juan Island, so we waved goodbye to our whale family and slowly left the windy Strait of Georgia. We enjoyed a beautiful cruise back into San Juan Channel and Friday Harbor, even getting some bonus looks at some harbor porpoises along the way to end another amazing day on the water.
Check out our SmugMug to see photos from our trips on M/V Osprey this season at https://sanjuansafaris.smugmug.com/.