Most animals have some level of salinity in their blood. For terrestrial animals, maintaining that salt concentration is fairly straightforward - eat and drink water and your kidneys will do the rest. In aquatic environments, however, there is an added challenge. In a marine environment, the salt concentration of the water surrounding an animal is much higher than that of the animal itself, so drinking salt water actually dehydrates marine mammals (think how dehydrating...

Today we took the Seahawk up north to boundary pass, aiming for Patos Island to follow some potential orca reports. J pod was reported moving southwards from Point Roberts this morning, returning from their trip to Canada yesterday where they spend the majority of their day miles up the Strait of Georgia. Killer whales regularly travel 100 miles a day, and based on their movement since last night they may make today a hundred mile day!

When we approached Patos Island a...

Eagles. Especially Bald Eagles, as our national symbol, our very majestic birds. They perch high up with their stoic stares, and gracefully swoop low with astounding speed. In the San Juan Islands, there is one of the largest concentrations of mated pairs of Bald Eagles in the country. The only places that surpass us are located in Alaska! It’s a fun game to play how many tiny white heads you can spot in the green backdrop of the islands as we boat by.

Adult Bald Eagle

Yesterday (Sunday), was another beautiful day out on the water in the San Juan Islands. It’s still summer here, hot and sunny, but there are signs of fall starting in the more northerly regions of the planet. Different birds species that breed and nest in the arctic regions are returning here in preparation for winter. Most notably (maybe just my favorites) are the phalaropes. These groups of birds are a little smaller than doves and hang around drifting mats of logs and...

Today we took the Seahawk out for another beautiful cruise through the San Juan Islands. We left Roche Harbor to head towards Sentinel Rock, a popular seal haul-out location. Harbor seals are about 5 or 6 feet long and weight around 300 pounds, most of which is blubber. Even though they're covered in this generous layer of fat, they still get chilly in our frigid, 47 degree Fahrenheit waters, so they often scoot themselves up on rocky islands and shorelines to bask in our...

Here in the San Juan Islands we are constantly surrounded by beautiful marine wildlife. Our waters are home to a wide diversity of marine mammals including four species of whales, two species of dolphins, two species of porpoises, two species of seals, two species of sea lions, and we also have the possibility of seeing two species of otters! With such a great array of species, we sometimes come across injured or dead wildlife on our tours or while wandering the islands...

A member of J pod spyhops in Haro Strait

Today on M/V Sea Hawk was amazing. We caught up with some whales earlier than expected, just off of Turn Point. It was J2 Granny! Although there were no other whales in our immediate vicinity, there were some a few miles away, and thats nothing when you can communicate like an orca can (via sound that travels 8-10 miles). Everyone on the boat, and everyone on shore watched in awe as the oldest known killer whale in the world...

Today's wildlife tour took the Seahawk on a cruise around some of the most beautiful and eccentric islands in the San Juans. We ducked out of Roche Harbor through Mosquito Pass where double created and pelagic cormorants were drying their wings off on the buoys marking private docks. Once we moved into Haro Strait we picked up a little bit of a breeze and a light chop until we put the wind behind us and headed north. We spotted a bald eagle soaring past the west side of...

J37 Hy'Shqa breaching

I was shocked to have residents back in today. They left on Saturday, and I was expecting them to take a long absence. Luckily, J pod must have come back in late last night, because there were some way up north in the Strait of Georgia. Even luckier for us, there were some on the west side of San Juan Island. We left Roche Harbor through Mosquito Pass, thinking we were going to head down toward Eagle Point. However, before we got all the way...

Gull grabbing small bait fish from a bait ball at the surface.

About 2.5 hours in to hour 3-hour tour this afternoon, Captain Gabe, and I, along with the 22 guests on board, began to make our way back toward Roche Harbor. We had already encountered a ton of wildlife. This included a few species of birds foraging over a bait ball (pictured). We observed flying bald eagles, roosting cormorants, harbor porpoise, harbor seal, and even the (non-native) mouflon sheep of...