Olivia Ellman | M/V Sea Lion | September 10th, 2024 | 12:30 pm
Today’s afternoon trip was yet again another beautiful, whale filled day in the Salish Sea! We left Friday Harbor with some reports of Bigg’s Killer Whales far north in Canada, though we were unsure if we would be able to catch up with them if they continued moving north and out of our range. We traveled straight up San Juan Channel, crossed the border into Canada, and continued northwest in between Saturna and Pender Islands, getting some great looks at some porpoises along the way. Luck was on our side today as the whales had turned east towards us instead of moving north, so it wasn’t long before we finally began seeing a few dorsal fins in the distance! This group of three Bigg’s was one of our favorite families the T18s, with mom Nootka and the boys Galiano and Spouter. They began by traveling a bit apart, with Nootka and Galiano close together and Spouter trailing a bit behind. After a little while, Spouter caught up to them and the three were traveling together exploring the shorelines along Mayne Island. We were also quite close to Galiano Island, which was a fun bonus since we were with the whale Galiano himself! After watching them surface together as they continued north, it was soon time for us to turn around and begin our trek back towards San Juan Island.
On our way home we stopped by Spieden Island to get some looks at a bald eagle and one of the deer species that live there, but we were soon in for another surprise. As we were traveling on Spieden, we got a report of another Bigg’s Killer Whale ahead of us! We began seeing this individual off our port side, and saw that it was the lone male T49C Nielson! He was traveling steadily southeast and as we were waiting for him to surface again he suddenly appeared right off our bow! We shut our boat off and he swam right under us, surfacing again off our starboard side. He surfaced a few more times as he slowly moved away from us, treating us to some fantastic close up views! He continued traveling away from us, so it was also time for us to keep going back towards Friday Harbor. What an amazing surprise ending to our trip!
Check out our SmugMug to see photos from our trips on M/V Osprey at https://sanjuansafaris.smugmug.com/.