Piper | Friday, May 31, 2019 | M/V Kestrel | 3:00 PM
On our afternoon tour today the orcas that were spotted in the morning (the T65Bs, T75Bs, and T75Cs) had continued north so we left from Friday Harbor going north into San Juan Channel. When we arrived to Green Point on Spieden Island, a common haul-out site for Steller’s sea lions, at first we continued to motor past because it looked like all of the sea lions had left for Alaska, but Captain Gabe caught sight of some Stellers in the water near the bull kelp forest so we approached and on further inspection, we found three Steller’s sea lions, and one California sea lion, all swimming together!
These massive animals watched us right back and we quickly continued down the length of Spieden, getting a glimpse of a bald eagle up in the trees, scanning the channel. When we reached the end of the island we turned north again up the west side of Stuart Island and stopped for a photo-opp at Turn Point Lighthouse before going just a biiiiiiiit further into Swanson Channel where we caught up with not only the group of orcas we’d seen earlier, who we were viewing off our starboard side, but also Divot the humpback, in the distance off our port side!!
We got whale whiplash as we watched one species surface and then the other over and over. We got to see at least one fluke from the humpback but our attention was really drawn to the group of three matriarchs and their offspring who were now taking the afternoon to play! The two newborns, the four year old and eight year old were a rambunctious group and the moms played right along! We watched as they rolled and backwards cartwheeled, swam upside-down, half out of the water, and chased each other around. It was an amazing sight watching as these families bonded with each other and with our hearts (cheesy, but so true!) The sun was getting low on the horizon by the time we turned away from these Bigg’s killer whales and headed back for Friday Harbor with incredible memories.