K12s and K13s
After almost a week having gone by without working together, Captain Pete and I started off our 11am trip on M/V Sea Hawk. Unfortunately, there had been no whale reports before we left the dock. We weren't super surprised because the west side was incredibly foggy, which makes it difficult to find whales, for obvious reasons. So we headed north out of Mosquito Pass, toward locations where we knew we could see other wildlife, and that would be a good place to look for whales on our own.
We cruised past Kellet Bluffs and the cormorant rookery on Henry Island toward Speiden Island. We got a great look at a huge harbor seal haul out on Sentinel Rock. From there, we continued down and around the golden hills of Speiden, and then through the cactus islands. Shortly after making it through John's Pass, while on the north side of Stuart Island, we recieved a whale report. So without further adieu, we continued in the direction of the whales, with no intention of stopping for anything until we got to them. Luckily for us, they were right outside of Open Bay, very close to Roche Harbor. What was really cool, was that the whales appeared to go in to sleep mode. They were surfacing all roughly at the same time, and fairly close together. When all whales dolphins are porpoises sleep, they just turn one half of the brain "off" at a time, so that they can continue to swim if they want to, as well is come to the surface to open and close their blowhole--a necessity to avoid suffocation. With orcas, we think we tend to see them grouped up in this situation, with one marker whale fully awake and leading the pod. We stuck with this group of 12 resting killer whales (K12s and K13s) all the way to Battleship Island, at which point, we peeled off and head back in to the dock.
Naturalist Alex
M/V Sea Hawk