Piper | Sunday, May 19, 2019 | M/V Sea Hawk | 12:00 PM
Today our guests aboard the Sea Hawk were celebrating a wedding in Roche Harbor and boy did they pick a great day for a whale watch! There had been reports of rain for today but instead all we saw were sunny skies! Just before we left the docks a report of Bigg's killer whales came through; they’d been picked up just off Moresby Island and were hanging out there taking down a bunch of harbor seals! We motored over immediately so as not to miss any action and we were not disappointed! We had a group of a couple families hanging out together, the two matriarchs of their families (T65B and T75B) with their offspring, as well as a lone male (T124C) who was hanging on the outskirts of the group. As we arrived on scene we saw a ton of seagulls scavenging for pieces left behind from the kills these orcas had been making. Bigg’s killer whales focus on eating the muscle and fat and leave behind bones, skin, and many internal organs so the rest of the ecosystem gets to feast as well as the orcas that put in the work. A couple bald eagles flew in to swipe food for themselves as well!
These were some very active orcas; we saw them spy hopping, tail slapping, moon walking (surfacing backwards, tail-to-head), and we even got to see a couple breaches! It was an absolutely incredible sight. Not that we could ever get enough of watching these beautiful animals, but after a good long while of floating around with them we took off to find other wildlife.
We headed on over to Turn Point off Stuart Island before moving to Spieden Island where we got to see Mouflon sheep, harbor seals (that were not getting eaten by killer whales…), more bald eagles, and even a bald eagle nest! With the sun still shining down we made our way back into Roche Harbor after another wonderful day on the water!