Our Sunday afternoon trip (May 31 2010) caught up with a group of Transient Killer Whales that had been traveling from the straits into San Juan Channel. Apparently they had been hunting in the Cattle Pass area between whale rocks and goose island for more than an hour before moving northeast into San Juan Channel/Griffin Bay area. The Sea Hawk caught up with them just outside of Friday Harbor as the whales made their way slowly northeast.
It is not uncommon to encounter Transient Killer Whales year round in our area. The group of three Transient Killer Whales spotted yesterday, was contained the same whales Kevin and I spotted about 1 month ago near Kelp Reef in Haro Strait. The group a month ago had a couple other individual whales (total 5). At that time, we observed the group hunt a Stellar Sea Lion for 1.5 hours before finally taking their prey under to forage.