It was another hot one here in the San Juan Islands on Monday, especially for May, but that means were get a little bit more sun and after a long, grey winter that is okay sometimes. Captain Mike and I set out with high hopes and headed north with a wonderful group of folks. We headed so far north that we eventually made it into Canada, and soon there they were. You could see the blows first and then large, dark, shark-like fins slicing through the water as this family of Transient Orcas headed east. As we got closer we were able to identify them as the T18s which is a multi-generational family where T18 is the matriarch/ grandmother and T19 is her daughter who has two adult sons T19B and T19C. This is always a great family to watch mostly because one of the males, T19B, who is 21 years has a giant floppy fin so sometimes we call him, “Mr. Floppy Fin”. They were traveling pretty fast towards Gooch Island, and that is I thought they were up to but suddenly, they started maneuvering a lot indicating that they were hunting something. The females stayed down for a long time while the bigger males swam in tight circles at the surface seemingly ready to step in if their assistance was needed. This family is little different than a lot of the Transient families we see. They are multigenerational and they also are all adults. When families have a young orca with them and are hunting they have to worry about its safety as well as teaching it how to hunt at the same time. This family with no children currently is super efficient at what they do and ever move seems very coordinated and effortless as the separate and rejoin to take down their prey.
We stayed with the T18s a little bit longer then turned south to look for some other whales. We soon spotted the blows of not one but two Humpback Whales! Their direction looked like it was going to intersect with our so Captain Mike turned the engine off and we slowly floated towards these two giants. They were eating a lot. Both were doing deep, deep dives to fill their mouths with tiny krill and bait fish that they would catch in their baleen once they forced all the water through it. They slowly popped up closer and closer until we could see their tiny dorsal fins, their flukes, and also how big they really are (around the size of the boat we were on).
Time to head back, but not before we got to see some Harbor Seals playing in a newly grown kelp forest, a bunch of Bald Eagles, a albino deer on Spieden Island, and a Steller’s Sea Lion gulping down some kind of skate.
Just another San Juanderful day here folks, hope all is whale with you.
Until nest time,
Naturalist Erick
M/V Sea Lion
