M/V Kestrel | 11:00 AM | Naturalist Alexandria | June 14th, 2019
What a fantastic day today turned out to be! We loaded onto M/V Kestrel, excited for the day ahead! We met Captain Gabe down on the dock and eagerly boarded onto the vessel. As we headed out we didn’t have any firms reports to go off of, but Captain Gabe had heard a rumor over the radio of a family of orcas that was spotted off the West Side of San Juan Island.
We headed south down San Juan Channel to see if we could possibly try to find those orcas! Luckily after we had been on the water for 20 minutes or so, Captain Gabe got word over the radio that the orcas had been found! We headed out, just a half mile or so off South Beach.
We picked up these orcas and got to hang out with them for a nice chunk of time. As we were watching
them they took a few deeper dives, which suggested that they were probably hunting and having lunch.
After a series of deeper dives they surfaced and then started to swim quickly up the west side. We hung
out with these whales for a great amount of time and then worked our way back to the southern part of
San Juan Channel.
As we were working our way up, Captain Gabe remarked at how we hadn’t seen an eagle yet, and how
we wished we could find one for our passengers! As soon as he said that, we looked to the left and just
off the port side of the boat we saw an eagle in the distance!
After checking out the eagle for a bit we continued to head back to Friday Harbor, little did we know our
trip wasn’t over yet! We had two Humpbacks surface a few hundred yards ahead of us! That’s right…
not one but TWO Humpbacks surfaced off our bow! We hung out with these Humpbacks for a few more
surfacings before heading back to Friday Harbor.
It was quite the trip- we got to enjoy Biggs Killer Whales, Harbor Porpoise, a Bald Eagle, Harbor Seals,
Steller Sea Lions, and 2 Humpbacks! What a day!
Until Next Time,
Naturalist Alexandria