[7/3/17 - M/V Kestrel - 2:00PM] On July 3rd Captain Mike and I headed out with a full boat of great passengers aboard the M/V Kestrel to go look for some exciting wildlife! We headed south through San Juan Channel and first stopped at Shark Reef along the shore of Lopez Island to look at some hauled out Harbor Seals. Going in between Shark Reef and Lopez Island is going through a pretty skinny but ultimately pretty deep channel but it’s a cool experience seeing people hiking on shore thirty feet to you left as you pass curious seals on your right.
After passing them and their adorable dark eyes we headed to Long Island and looked at an Bald Eagles’ nest with two young eagles in it. They were waiting for mom or dada to come back with food! We then headed around south and headed through Cattle Pass back into San Juan Channel. As we curved in between San Juan Island and Turn Island we saw them – orcas! It was a large group of Transient (Biggs) Orcas. They were traveling north a long the channel with a few playful moments. Some of them spyhopped and other young ones just rolled around on their older siblings heads. These were three family groups (matrilines) of orcas all following their matriarchs north. They were the T65As, the T49As, and the T75Bs. Three families!
It was amazing to watch these three families interact and play as well as travel through the waters in between the inner islands. Transients (Bigg’s) are the orcas that prey upon marine mammals. They usually travel in smaller groups and are a little bit bigger, but are only one of the ecotypes that call these waters their home for part of the year. The other type we normally see here are the residents. Those only eat fish and predominantly Chinook Salmon. Next we continued to the even tinier passages between the Cactus Islands where we saw a whole group of Bald Eagles fighting over some food and others watching.
You can’t beat that. Whale folks, until next time!
Naturalist Erick