With our 1:30 departure today, Captain Mike decided to head south with our guests, Naturalist Heather and myself. With heading south we were able to see a couple of Steller Sea Lions hanging out around Whale Rocks! Steller Sea Lions are endangered animals and most the time we see males, aka bulls. Bulls can get to nine feet long and weigh up to 1.2 tons!
After seeing the Steller Sea Lions we motored to Salmon Bank to look at Minke whales. Minke whales are known to be very fast whales and they were showing us that today! Everyone kept their eyes scanning the waters for the Minke and finally it surfaced right at the bow of our boat near a bait ball. A bait ball is when a school of fish is tightly packed together and the Minke whales love to feed on these schools of fish! After spending quite a bit of time checking out the Minke we headed to Long Island to see the nesting pair of Bald Eagles. They were perched on the branches just a few trees away from the nest!
Finally on our way back home we stopped to get one last look of the Steller Sea Lions and they started to wave goodbye to us! It was a perfect way to end our trip.
Aimee-Naturalist, M/V Sea Lion
San Juan Safaris