Celebrating our third decade of whale watching. | RSS Feed
A chilly day on the water today, but thankfully no snow. These Steller sea lions are a favorite of mine this time of year. We see them on the southern tip of Speiden Island. They are all males, some getting up to 2000 lbs., that have traveled away from their rockeries. They’ll be heading back to the rockeries around mid May when the breeding season begins. Very cool to see them hauled out. As they dry out they become a soft golden color.
This is T-14, a transient orca taken by Greg Walker on 5 April. T-14 was traveling by himself about five miles from a group of around 10 other transients. One of the resident pods, J-pod, was also in the area to the south of where we spotted T-14. Thanks Greg for sending along the photos.
Transient Whale
We were lucky enough to be out with J pod today. They were slowly coming up the westside of San Juan Island very spread out foraging. What a treat this early in our season to be with the whales.
I got word that little J-43, born last November to Samish J-14, was not seen today by the Center for Whale Research. That doesn’t mean it didn’t survive the winter but it’s not a good sign. Usually at that young age the newborns are very close to mom. Hopefully the whales will be around the next few days so I can get a better look at all of them. They were so scattered today that we only saw four or five, including Granny J-2. I did hear J-1 Ruffles, the oldest male in J pod was seen today as well.