Month: March 2022

March 29, 2022

March 30, 2022 — Leave a comment

 Anacortes

Still seas, overcast skies and peek-a-boo views of the Olympic peaks greeted us as we began our adventure. We started the search by scanning the waters of Bellingham Channel and mid Rosario Strait. We stopped at Bird Rocks to visit with some hauled out harbor seals, two large Steller sea lions and two mature bald eagles. We slowed at Castle Island, spying another mature bald eagle and many vocal pigeon guillemots. It wasn’t long after that we found our first whales of the day! The T30Bs, T117B and T172 were spread out and scouting for prey. They were being incredibly subtle when we arrived on scene, taking few breaths at the surface before slipping beneath the surface on deeper dives. This all changed when the lead group found lunch at Davidson Rock. A signal must have been sent, because the orca who were spread out over a mile began porpoising towards the two that had found their prey. Soon enough, all five whales were circling and diving together and dining on their meal. Their synchrony and strategy never cease to amaze. When they went west, we went east, leaving them to their travels. Many harbor porpoise were present at Lawson Reef, but Captain Carl sighted something larger on the horizon. Sure enough, gray whale CRC-2440 was feeding just offshore of NAS Whidbey. The sound of the Growlers taking off didn’t seem to disturb its rhythm. We cruised beneath the Deception Pass Bridge at high tide, a stunning end to an incredible morning on the water. 

-Sam 

from Blogger https://ift.tt/j8NgWwi
via IFTTT

March 25, 2022

March 26, 2022 — Leave a comment

 Anacortes 

We could not have asked for calmer conditions in which to explore the Strait of Juan de Fuca today! Overcast skies and glassy seas greeted us, with stunning views of the snow-capped Olympics throughout our journey. We’d heard news of whales sighted to the south earlier that morning, so we made a left turn in Rosario and angled towards Partridge Bank. We stopped at Colville along the way to visit with harbor seals, black oyster catchers and two mature bald eagles. As we crossed over McArthur, Smith and Partridge banks we found large gatherings of rhinoceros auklets, pigeon guillemots and common murres. It was near Partridge Bank that our crew sighted the whales that had been reported earlier that morning, and they were on a mission to get west. We caught up with them just in time to witness an efficient and somewhat gruesome harbor porpoise takedown. T77 and her youngest T77E dispatched an unlucky porpoise in a matter of minutes, while others in the pod quickly fled the scene. Photos would later reveal the extent of the harbor porpoise’s wounds before T77 filleted it, creating a cloud of blood visible to everyone onboard. Just like that, lunch was finished and the two continued to quickly travel west towards Dungeness Spit. We left them to continue our search for wildlife, crossing paths with a pod of Dall’s porpoise near Hein Bank and turkey vultures near Castle Island. It truly was a trip to remember, for both crew and guests alike!
-Sam

from Blogger https://ift.tt/sLT4VXr
via IFTTT

March 23, 2022

March 24, 2022 — Leave a comment

ANACORTES

With warm weather greeting us this morning and spring in the air we headed out of Cap Sante marina. Gray overcast clouds soon filled the sky as we made our way down Guemes Channel and did a quick search of Bellingham Channel. Soon we were headed down Rosario Strait to check out some harbor seals and a bald eagle on Williamson Rocks. We continued south from there and ran into a massive group of harbor porpoise outside of Deception Pass. Porpoise were popping up everywhere and they were being joined by a bunch of harbor seals. After leaving the porpoise as we were about to pick up speed and continue our search, a gray whale showed up in Deception Pass. We swung back up to the pass and hung out for a while, getting a positive ID on the whale as 2441. It was very interesting to see a gray whale in that zone and we enjoyed it to the fullest. After waving goodbye to the gray whale we crossed Rosario to the south end of Lopez island. At Colville Island we found some more seals and another bald eagle before continuing on. Our search had us heading west and making our next slow down in Cattle Pass near whale rocks. There were dozens of Steller sea lions playing in the waters around the rock. Whale Rocks were also covered with bald eagles which makes sense as this is eagle migration season. We searched inner island after that and headed up to Peavine Pass before cruising up into the Strait of Georgia. We put on a massive search through the outer islands before making a turn and heading back toward Anacortes. On the return we cruised the Lummi Island shoreline and saw a few more eagles before we headed back into Anacortes.

-Tyson

from Blogger https://ift.tt/cFmX8b4
via IFTTT