Kelly | M/V Kestrel| Tuesday, May 27th 2025 | 2pm
It's days like to today that truly feel like the Salish Sea is just teaming with marine life. We were treated to almost non-stop wildlife on today's Adventure Tour. We took a right out of Friday Harbor only to instantly have a guest point out a bald eagle on Turn Island. We quickly realized there were 3 bald eagles in the area, two adults and one juvenile. One of the adults was right on the waters edge, picking away at a fish with his razor sharp beak. The other two eagles loomed close by, hoping for a bite themselves. Suddenly the feasting eagle flapped his wings propelling himself off the ground, and in one graceful motion transferred the fish carcass (it was basically just the spine at this point) from his beak to his talons. I was stunned at how seamless the transfer was!
After some quick looks at everyone's favorite rock sausages, harbor seals, we set our sights on bigger fauna. 15 (yes, 15!) Biggs killer whales were reported right next to us in San Juan Channel. This group was made up of 4 different families including:
- T123's
- T100's
- T100B's
- T86A's
SO many dorsal fins in the distance as we approached the massive group. Multiple large males accompanied this group, breathtaking with every surface as their 6ft dorsal fins shot up like black sails. We watched this group make their way down the channel and were treated to a few powerful back to back tail slaps from the adults. Shockingly these whales passed by not one... but two optimal feeding opportunities -a large group of harbor porpoise outside Griffin Bay and countless sea lions by whale rocks. Curious...must not have been very hungry! For the majority of the time we spent with these whales, we were able to watch groups off both the starboard and port side of our vessel, as the large group slowly began to split off into their individual matrilines.
After making our way out of the turbulent Cattle Pass, we stopped for some looks at Steller sea lions on whale rocks. They were extra active today, entertaining us with their frivolous bickering, water acrobatics and distinctive belch-like roars. Mind you, the entire time were watching the sea lions, we still have orcas off our starboard! Guests kept their heads on a swivel in an attempt to not miss any of the action!
After setting our sights back to Friday Harbor we were forced to stop at Griffin Bay due to finding a bonus killer whale, T49A "Noah"!! Yet another missive adult male. What was mister Noah doing out here all by himself? We can only speculate. So interesting that he seemed to be trailing far behind the larger group. Whatever he was up to, he was certainly in no hurry, milling back and fourth with each surfacing and moving at a snails pace. That brings our killer whale total up to 16! Heading back into the harbor we reflected on what a truly epic trip we had!