Olivia | July 2nd, 2019 | M/V Sea Hawk | 2:00pm
Today was one of the top trips for both Captain Sarah and me! Sarah is not only our Captain, but also our Lead Naturalist and has been here for six years observing our wildlife. If she says it was in her top 5, you know it was good! We headed out of Roche Harbor through John’s Pass and straight up to Boundary Pass. From there, we caught our first glance at some Killer Whales where we waited for them to turn around East Point to meet up with the T65A’s, minus their 15-year-old male T65A2.
It was fun being on this small boat where we not only had a broad age range, but such fun travelers from around the country, Canada, and an REI group. This brought in some like-minded individuals that shared my excitement in seeing the wildlife- how humbling! We watched as the Bigg’s Killer Whales milling around and right as Sarah announced we were going to head back towards San Juan Island and see what other wildlife was out there, the orcas decided to have lunch! This was so cool! We saw them lunge at a few porpoises (maybe the ones we saw earlier within the area) and even flip it into the air!
It was amazing to watch the young calf learn and practice with the adults, just like we do. Our Captain turned off the engine as birds got in on the action while the family group divided in two not far from our boat. We do our best to not only respect the wildlife, but also federal laws surrounding the marine mammals. We actively stay 200 meters away, but at the end of the day they are wild and roam where they please. This is the beauty of being wild, and I believe it is a fair assumption to say we were not disappointed in watching them in the act!