Killer whales, minkes, Dall's porpoises, harbor porpoises, Steller sea lions, and harbor seals–all in one day
Friday, September 14, 2007
This morning, for a bit of a change of pace, we decided to go for an early morning hike. Ashleigh, Sam, Tim, Anne, Alex, and Shannon walked from Reid Harbor on Stuart Island to the Turn Point lighthouse. It’s a 5 mile return hike, and everyone stopped about halfway at the Stuart Island schoolhouse to buy postcards. After using the mechanical pump out station at Reid Harbor, Alex and Shannon prepared hummus, boiled eggs, veggies and fruit for lunch. We then headed south to try to track J and L pods off the west coast of San Juan Island. Unfortunately, shortly after deploying the hydrophones, Sam got another chance to swim to free one of the cords from the portside prop. Val jumped in to help as well and Dall’s porpoises approached the boat. The hydrophones were redeployed and data was collected on bearings, way points, and photo ID’s. At least one minke whale was spotted. As the sun was setting, we motored into Fish Creek and spotted a number of Steller sea lions and harbor seals hauled out on rocks, as well as harbor porpoises in our wake. We even watched two harbor seals in the water arguing over a large salmon and fighting to keep the gulls from taking their catch.
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