[8/14/17- M/V Sea Hawk- Kelsey, Naturalist- 2:00PM]
M/V Sea Hawk meandered out of Roche Harbor on San Juan Island in search of whales and other cool wildlife, and we had the best of days!
The smoke has finally cleared out from the San Juan Islands, giving us a beautiful view of the islands and the surrounding mountain ranges as we cruised through perfect waters. We passed numerous sea birds, including a bait-ball filled with Glaucous gulls, Rhinocerous auklets, Common murres, and Pigeon guillemots fighting over fish. We spotted shy little harbor porpoise before they disappeared from alongside our boat, and leaning over the rails, we could see Moon jellyfish and Lion’s mane jellies passing us by as we headed further north to a report of killer whales. Finally, we arrived!
We were just between Patos Island and East Point, a Canadian lighthouse point on Saturna Island. We were in awe as we watched this beautiful transient (or mammal-hunting) orca group, filled with adult females and males, and even a juvenile or two. Only about 5 members were present in this family group, who we lovingly refer to as the T46’s. The matriarch, T46, led the group around, taking them northwest and further into Canada. They were possibly hunting when we left them, because they were spread out a bit and taking longer dives. It’s pretty special to get to watch an animal hunt and go into stealth mode. It’s not every day you get to watch a hunting whale!
The cruise back home consisted of seeing some harbor seals popping up in the water, and there were beautiful sights to be had on the stretch of water we travelled through getting back to Roche Harbor. Happy, happy day filled with orca whales!