[09/08/2017- M/V Kestrel- Kelsey, Naturalist- 2:00PM]
Today brought some drizzle, fog, and cloud cover (which has brought the smoke down quite a bit, yay!), but by the afternoon we had some better visibility and could forge our way south to an orca whale report!
M/V Kestrel zipped down to Port Townsend, but not before stopping at a Tufted puffin in Cattle Pass! It’s very rare to be seeing these clownish birds in our range, much less on the south point of San Juan Island! It was so cool to see! We also made another pit stop at Whale Rocks and checked out some ginormous Stellar’s sea lions, which are starting to slowly return to the San Juan Islands after spending time in Alaska for their summer breeding season. It’s nice to see them coming back home!
We continued on for the long trek down south. It took some time, but the waters were calm, and we finally made it to the scene of the transient (mammal-eating) killer whales! We were one of only 2 or 3 boats on scene, making for some great space to view and chances to shut off our engine and listen to them exhaling when they surfaced. They had just killed a sea lion a while before we arrived, and they were starting to celebrate with full bellies. Transient orcas are usually quiet and in stealth mode as their typical travel behaviors, so getting to see them acting so social was a treat! They were tail slapping, swimming upside down, and rolling across one another as they circled and slowly floated around each other. There were about 6 whales in this family pod, primariy females, but there was also a juvenile sprouter male, and there was even a little baby!
We waved the whales goodbye and headed back home to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. It was a long trip (we covered about 60 miles total!), but it was well worth the efforts of getting out there!