Jordan | July 25, 2018 | M/V Sea Hawk | 2:00 trip
Today was a great “hump day” Wednesday out on the water! As Captain Sarah and I headed out of Roche Harbor, we immediately began to see wildlife! There were massive salmon right in the harbor jumping and splashing about. Then, we saw a harbor seal with her pup swimming right next to the boat, peering up at our excited guests!
Soon after our first nature sightings, it didn’t take long until we found our whales! We found the Southern Resident killer whales right off of Henry Island which is just outside of Roche Harbor. The timing was actually perfect as we pulled our boat into the Haro Strait and found groups of J pod and K pod whales! It was clear that these whales were searching for their salmon as they splashed around and occasionally got excited after pinpointing one specific spot. And we knew that there were salmon in the area because we had already seen a couple with our own eyes, just a few minutes prior!
We watched these whales traveling elegantly through the water, swimming side by side and occasionally taking a moment to leap out of the water! We even saw a handful of huge male whales with their towering dorsal fins splashing around amongst their siblings. Eventually we moved on and viewed some other wildlife!
We boated through Spieden Channel along the south side of Spieden island and found a couple bald eagles perched high in the tree tops! These beautiful creatures posed perfectly for our guests amongst the blue skies. As we continued along the north side of Spieden we spotted some mouflon sheep! A mother sheep and her baby were balancing precariously along the shear cliffsides as they leapt gracefully from one rock to the other. We even found a couple fallow deer with their speckled backs close to the waters edge! It’s always so amazing to see exotic animals on this random Washingtonian island.
Then we passed by Flattop Island and viewed some pigeon guillemots as they dove underwater for their fish alongside harbor seals watching lazily from their warm rocks. As we headed back home, harbor seals on many different rock outcrops watched as we passed by with their little seal pups tucked in right next to them.
What a great day in the San Juan Islands!