[Naturalist Sarah – 09/24/2017 – M/V Kestrel – 02:00pm]
When I think of perfect whale watch days I think about getting to see a wide range of wildlife and beautiful sunny weather. Usually September provides both of these opportunities!
Cruising the San Juans
Sunday was an amazing day out on the water. We left Friday Harbor with several reports of whales all around the San Juan Islands. On such a fast boat, we had our choice of whales! Captain Gabe and I decided to take our M/V Kestrel guests to a group of Bigg’s killer whales in the Canadian Gulf Islands. On our way to the orcas we made a couple of stops to check out the beautiful scenery of the San Juans!
Killer Whale Encounter
We found the whales near Moresby Island travelling and socializing. It was unusual to see these marine mammal eating killer whales so active at the surface. Usually these whales are fairly cryptic, as they want to hide from their main prey: harbor seals. We got to see the whales snuggling and playing as they slowly cruised west. We had three different families of orcas together, the T137s, the T065As, and the T036s, all lead by their strong matriarchs. All told, we had roughly thirteen killer whales together!
Humpback whales
After an amazing encounter with the orcas, we peeled away to go find some humpback whales that had been reported travelling north. After a brief search, we found the two giant whales at Pender Bluffs. These whales are members of the group known as the mysticetes, which means that they have baleen plates in their mouths instead of teeth. Baleen enables the whales to filter-feed, eating mostly small fish and small shrimp-like creatures known as krill. We got several great looks as the whales fluked up and continued to travel north.
As we headed towards home we also got looks at the critters on Spieden Island, as well as some bald eagles. It was an awesome day cruising the islands, and I loved sharing our area’s wildlife with our wonderful guests!
Please enjoy some photos from the trip!
See all 16 photos
