(Naturalist Rachel- Friday, April 30- M/V Sea lion)
Today we were lucky to have reports of Orcas just north of San Juan Island. We headed out of the harbor and came across a few bald eagles in flight, a majestic sight to be seen! Not too long after that we found a group of transient, or Bigg’s Killer Whales, just off of Yellow Island. The group of whales were the T2C’s, a family of whales that have been seen quite a bit during the spring season. This particular family is interesting because of one individual, T2C2, a 15-year-old male, with a distinct case of scoliosis. T2C2 tends to swim slower than the rest of the family but seems to be in good health condition otherwise. We watched as the whales foraged for marine mammals in the area.
After watching the whales for a little while we headed over to Spieden Island, where we saw a number of other wildlife. Most notably we saw a number of Steller’s sea lions. Not only were they hauled out on the shore but there was also a large raft of about 10 Steller’s in the water. The sea lions make a raft by group up together and resting on the surface of the water. After getting some more looks at the wildlife of Spieden Island we headed back towards the orcas, who were right outside of Friday Harbor. It was a great trip and the cherry on top was the sun emerging through the clouds!