M/V Kestrel | Naturalist Alexandria | 11AM | June 24th, 2019
What a great day out on the water it was! When we initially boarded on M/V Kestrel we had no firm reports to work off of, but by the time we had gotten everyone boarded and pushed ourselves off the dock, Captain Gabe and Captain Pete received word of an orca sighting off of Matia Island!
Matia Island is north of Orcas Island so we took a left after leaving Friday Harbor and headed north up San Juan Channel. We stopped and checked out some Harbor Seals hauled out on White Rock, and got some incredible looks at these little “rock sausages” all hanging out tanning themselves in the sunshine. We then worked our way up through President’s Channel and eventually over the north side of Orcas.
We caught up with those Orcas and got to hang out with them for a nice chunk of time! They were a family of Biggs Killer Whales, also known as Transient Orcas. These Biggs looked to the T65As, and we got some fantastic looks at T65A2 off the port side. He is a 15 year old male with a big dorsal fin, but he still has a nice amount of time to grow his dorsal fin even bigger!
We stayed with these whales a bit longer, got some great looks at them and then decided we needed to peel off and start heading back to Friday Harbor. It was a beautiful sunny day, full of gorgeous whales and a beautiful route that allowed us to circumnavigate Orcas- something we rarely get to do!
Until Next Time,
Naturalist Alexandria