Olivia Ellman | May 18th, 2026 | M/V Osprey | 1:30pm
Today's journey in our search for wildlife took us across the border to the Canadian side of the Haro Strait! Our first sighting was along Spieden Island where we found many Stellar's Sea Lions resting on the shoreline and swimming among the kelp. I am always amazed by the size of these animals, and love seeing them interact with each other. As we continued along Spieden, we got to see a bald eagle on a tree top, the first of many throughout our trip... We soon found a group of harbor seals resting on another small island nearby, providing a great contrast to the sea lions we had already spent time with. The seals are much less mobile on land than sea lions are, so they were resting right along the water's edge and watching us as we passed by. We continued towards the Haro Strait, and in the calm waters noticed some harbor porpoise surfacing! It was amazing to see so many different species within a small area of the Salish Sea, and this was all before we found whales.
As we crossed the border near Sidney Island, we soon began to see black dorsal fins in the distance, and knew that we had found Killer Whales! This was a well known matriline of Bigg's known as the T49As, and it was wonderful to see these familiar dorsal fins once again. As usual, T49A3 Nat stood out the most among his family members with his tall dorsal as the group of 6 traveled south together. Suddenly, they picked up some speed and began moving in different directions, one of them splashing briefly at the surface. Were these whales hunting a seal, or was something else going on? The change in activity didn't last too long, and while they did continue circling around a bit, it was difficult to tell what they were up to underwater. They took a few longer dives, but then continued their travels south and it was time for us to turn back north. We continued searching for any other wildlife on our route back towards Friday Harbor, and when we reached Spieden Channel again we saw many more bald eagles either in trees or flying around. We even saw a juvenile sitting on the hillside! This was the most bald eagles I had seen this season, and it was exciting seeing how many we could find on just one island. Before reaching San Juan Channel, we spotted some mouflon sheep to round out our beautiful day on the water with lots of wildlife!