A pretty brisk tour to start with but the sun eventually broke through and began warming things up. Our destination was to see two pods of Biggs Orca the T90’s, T124’s and Stellar Sea Lions.
We left the dock heading north knowing that the pods we wanted to see were also moving north. I stopped by Green Point to see some Stellar Sea Lions. From there we began the search for the two pods that had been left a couple hours earlier.
A Bald Eagle on the Canadian side prompted my explanation of the difference between Canadian and American Bald Eagles.
Continuing to search but not finding the Orca where we were expecting them. Finally one of the Canadian boats found them once again but they had reversed course. They were right back where they were first spotted in the morning.
One of the whales has a big scar on her right side dorsal. It looks like it is from one of the NOAA’s GPS satellite tags. They use a crossbow to shoot into the whale with two bolts, two broadheads and the GPS tracker attached.
They have stopped using that type tag until “further review” after killing one of our Resident Orca L95 Nigel a little over 2 years ago.
We spent some extra time viewing them and then headed back to Friday Harbor. On the way back we stopped off to see more Stellar Sea Lions.
We were near an anchored Canadian Coast Guard vessel and on the way back in San Juan Channel we passed by a US Coast Guard cutter.
I grabbed a pic of Cattle Point Lighthouse and if you look closely there is an Eagle sitting on top.
A nice day with T90’s, T124’s and Stellar Sea Lions. Check out another post with Biggs Killer Whales.
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