Jordan | August 26, 2018 | M/V Sea Hawk | 2:00 trip
Today was a fantastic day out on the water! Captain Sarah and I headed out of Roche Harbor really excited to see whales and other amazing life, when all of a sudden, we found whales!
We hadn’t even reached open waters when we spotted dorsal fins just a few feet away! Coming into harbor, these young transient whales were searching for seals among the boats. We identified these individuals as just two whales: T65A3 and T65A4 who are normally accompanied by the rest of their pod, the T65As.
As transient whales, these orcas were actively looking for marine mammals as they explored Roche Harbor and then headed out into more open waters. We could tell that these orcas were really young and having fun off by themselves away from mom. They would dive down and pop up in totally random places. The whale watching boats had to spin around in circles multiple times trying to find them!
Eventually we decided to check out some other wildlife and headed around Spieden Island to check out some adorable harbor seals on the shallow rocks. Seals take advantage of low tide to haul out on those rocks and get as much sun time as possible. Even though they’re really well adapted for the cold waters, they can still get hypothermia!
Along the way we spotted a bald eagle up in the trees and some seals swimming in the water as well! We spotted a couple exotic deer within the Forest on the north side of Spieden Island briefly as we passed through that channel.
On the way home we watched a bit more of orca whale action and then headed back into Roche Harbor!