It’s been fairly quiet at the dock at our Roche Harbor location (Kevin and Alex are holding down the fort!). Even with this cooler & foggy weather, we are fully operational and running all kayak and whale watch trips as usual. This morning, kayak guide Brittany had three of the coolest women ever paddling on a three hour trip. They were having a pretty normal kayak trip; seals, bald eagles, jelly fish, star fish, porpoise, etc… Then! All of a sudden, two huge bald eagles came swooping out of the sky toward an exposed rock with harbor seal mothers and pups. It didn’t take much for Britt and her guests to realize the eagles were trying to swoop up the pups for some tasty snacks! The eagles landed on the rocks just as all the mother and pups scattered and made it safely into the water. Phewww, big sigh of relief! As the group rounded the corner to start a channel crossing between Pearl Island & Henry Island (the two islands that protect Roche Harbor), they noticed a Colombian Black Tail deer and fawn standing on the waters edge. The got closer to the water and finally stepped in and started to swim! Britt and her guests nervously watched as momma and fawn started the long crossing. They made it about 20 feet into the channel when (to everyone’s relief!) the two deer did a 180 and went right back to shore!
Captain Brian, Naturalist Tiffany, and our guests on the Sea Hawk just got back from the morning whale watch. Within 30 minutes of leaving Roche Harbor, they were with the Southern Resident Killer Whales and stayed with them for the next two hours! Js and Ks were milling together as they traveled south towards the Lime Kiln Lighthouse. The youngest members of the pods were the real stars today! Several calves were floating on their backs doing tail slaps and our guests could see their cream colored tummies! They also tried to mimic mom and attempted a few full body breaches and some porpoising.
Check out our Facebook page later for updates from the afternoon kayak trips!