Sarah | 06/29/2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 01:30pm
Yesterday’s overcast weather yielded amazing wildlife viewing… with a bit of [much needed] rain falling from the gray skies the islands had that very specific Pacific Northwest magic swirling over them.
Leaving Friday Harbor Captain Mike, Naturalist Jordan, and I elected to head south towards some areas that we’ve had great wildlife sightings lately. Cruising through Griffin Bay we caught views of our two most common marine mammals in the Salish Sea: harbor seals and harbor porpoises. Both are relatively the same size, at about five feet long, and weigh about the same, at about 150 pounds. There were baitballs with excited birds scattered throughout the tranquil waters.
As we neared Deadman’s Island on the southwestern side of Lopez Island we started to see white heads dotting the trees… bald eagles! There had to be six or seven of the enormous birds sitting in the trees and, upon closer inspection, sitting on the rocks as well! After some great looks at the eagles we headed even further south into Cattle Pass looking for some Steller’s sea lions hauled out on Whale Rocks. This is the latest I’ve ever seen these sea lions here in the San Juan Islands, as usually they head up to breeding rookeries in Northern British Columbia and Southeast Alaska. Currently the social make-up on the rocks looks like we have mostly juvenile sea lions, who wouldn’t have had a shot at breeding, still here with us in our “southern” waters. We elected to explore a bit off-shore to see some water no one else had looked at in the whale watch fleet, before heading back north to some reported killer whales.
We met up with the T124A family of Bigg’s killer whales in Upright Channel between Shaw and Lopez Islands. The whales appeared to be traveling in a tight group zigging and zagging to and from the shore. With a slight mist over the water, our encounter had an ethereal feel. We listened to their exhales and watched as the young calves played with one another. The whales traveled towards Harney Channel, before looping back towards the Lopez Island Ferry Terminal. We often see this kind of truly non-directional travel from the Bigg’s killer whales, as they hunt intelligent marine mammals and need to keep their potential prey on their toes!
Enjoy some photos from the day!
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