Adult Bald Eagle
Today, Captain Gabe and I head out of Roche Harbor with a lovely family charter on board M/V Sea Hawk. We cruised north in the direction of a humpback whale report and caught up with it a few miles northwest of Turn Point. This lone adult was exhibiting typical humpback behavior, surfacing 3-5 times to breath between each 4-6 minute deep dive. For the majority of our time with this whale, we were the only boat on scene. I love when that happens because we can turn off the engine and just listen to the sounds of the water and the whale breathing. These whales are exhaling at speeds greater than 150 miles per hour in order to clear a few gallons of water that collects above (not inside) their blowhole, which creates an awe-inspiring PSSHHHH-sound, if you can imagine. In fact, often times we’ll hear the breath first, which is what gives away the whales location after a long dive.
After getting our fill of the humpback, we moved on in the direction of Turn Point lighthouse. There, we encountered a huge pod of harbor porpoise that surfaced repeatedly in view of our boat. Typically, these guys travel in groups of 2-3 individuals, and are very shy. My best (educated) guess is that this was a feeding or breeding event, but either way it was so cool to get such a great look at these little cetaceans!
From there we continued along Stuart through John’s Pass and through the Cactus islands, where we found at least 100 harbor seals and 3 adult Bald Eagles before we shuffled around Speiden Island to see two large herds of fallow deer and mouflon sheep frolicking through the short, golden grass.
A day that started out looking like it might be dreary, cold, and rainy, turned out to be sunny, warm, and full of wildlife! Another great day on the ‘Ol Hawk.
Naturalist Alex
M/V Sea Hawk