Humpbacks, orcas, and sea lions, oh my!

Another amazing day! We had quite a number of visitors today, including a Cha'ba!

 

Cha'ba is the Quileute word for "whale tail", and we were graced with a humpback whale showing theirs to us earlier today! Since the buoy Cha'ba is located in waters offshore of Quileute tribal lands, the buoy was named by a Quileute tribal member before it was deployed the first time. We felt very fortunate to see an actual cha'ba during the same cruise that we deployed the buoy Cha'ba!

A pod of five orcas also cruised by us.

R/V Thompson crew, scientists, and educators checking out the orcas. From the left: Stephen (marine tech), Keegan (marine tech intern), Jan (scientist), Sue (educator), Mike (educator), Nissa (educator), Matthew (scientist), and Tom (educator).

Part of the orca pod - two females and a baby!

We also had a tag-along sea lion that was surfing along side of the ship for awhile.

Zooming right for us.

Sea lion peeking around the hull of the ship.

NANOOS educator Amy and our sea lion pal.

Since we saw the sea lion soon after the orcas passed by, we initally hypothesized that it was trying to hide from them. The orcas we saw were most likely transient orcas, which eat mammals like seals and sea lions, as opposed to the resident orcas that live mostly in Puget Sound and eat fish. However, the sea lion hung out next to the ship for quite a while, and was close up against the side of the ship, so another hypothesis that was floated is that it was surfing along side the ship to get a free ride. Either way, we had a lot of fun watching it cruise along with us!

Several folks on board have also seen albatross flying around, but we have yet to capture them on film. We have one more full day at sea tomorrow, so hopefully they will cooperate!