We had an all around amazing day on the water. Our Whale Watch boat, the Sea Hawk with Naturalist Kevin and Captain Nancy saw members of our Southern Resident Orca population near Boundary Pass. There was another group of whales that came in from the south and were milling around south of the Lime Kiln Lighthouse.
The true highlight of our day, however, were the cute and curious harbor seals we commonly see in this area. We do have a year-round population of about 4000 harbor seals, so we see them on most every kayak trip. Harbor seals generally do not have many natural predators in the San Juans; only the bald eagle as pups and the occasional Transient Orca passing through the area. On kayak guide Nick’s 5 Hour kayak trip today, him and his guests saw a bunch of these guys curled up and snoozing in the kelp beds! They also swam right up to the kayaks to check out the human population. On our 3 Hour kayak trips today, kayak guides Jesse and Chase saw them swimming, fishing, and displaying an array of back floats, dives, and kelp haul-outs during high tide. Awesome stuff!
To top off an over all day of furry cuteness, we currently have two juvenile river otters hanging out on our kayak docks down at Roche Harbor!
-Brittany