Jordan | August 28, 2018 | M/V Sea Hawk | 2:00 trip
Today was such fantastic day out on the water! The skies were a beautiful blue and the sun was shining as we left Roche Harbor. Captain Pete and I headed north towards Spieden Island.
Here we found some harbor seals lounging on the shoreline! There were a bunch of them taking advantage of the sunshine. There was even one seal in the water flopping around in the nearby kelp forest. He squirmed around until he flopped on top of a big bunch of kelp so it looked like he was floating on top of the water.
Then as we got closer to the island we spotted a bald eagle up in a tree! We were appreciating its beautiful when suddenly another bald eagle swooped by right in front of our boat! It was quite the sight to see.
Then we spotted some fallow deer on the shoreline! These large spotted deer from Asia were taking shelter in the shade of the trees and grazing along the hillside. The exotic elegant animals were super nice to see.
As we cruised down Spieden Channel and were in the midst of spotting some porpoises in the water, we suddenly spotted orca whales!! It was so unexpectedly fantastic! We almost didn’t believe it when they surfaced just a few feet away from us, with no other whale boats to be seen. It was just our boat and the whales who seemingly appeared just for us! These beautiful whales swam gracefully along the shoreline traveling west.
Then all of a sudden, they abruptly turned south and chased down a porpoise really close to shore. We even witnessed prey sharing! Orcas are a very family-oriented society so seeing the prey sharing is just a reminder that they take care of all members of the family!
We were with these whales for a decent amount of time as we followed them south down the west side of Henry Island within Haro Strait. With the uniqueness of orca dorsal fins in combination with our extensive photo identification catalogue, I was able to id this pod as the T37As! This pod of transient whales is led by their mother T37A who can be identified by a notch in the middle of her dorsal fin. We could see her leading the way as we watched traveling down the coast.
Eventually we headed back to Roche Harbor with happy hearts.