K pod

On this fine Thursday afternoon, Captain Pete and I departed from Roche Harbor for our second trip of the day. We headed directly for the west side, and assumed we would meet up with the same residents that we had been hanging out with this morning, and were expecting pretty much the same trip we had this morning (fairly active residents, up and down the west side). But my oh my, this second trip was even better than the first.

We came across one matriline after another...

Today Captain Gabe and I left Roche Harbor on the ol' Hawk joined by a fantastic family and ready for adventure! After a leisurely cruise theough Speiden Channel to the East side of San Juan Island to handle some touching family matters, we decided to venture North in search of the most majestic monochrome mammals around, Orcas! We had heard reports of the Southern Residents making their way around Turn Point, the most Northwesterly point in the San Juan Islands.

We...

This afternoon's trip on the Seahawk began like many others. It was a warm day on the dock, our passengers were excited, and Captain Jim and I had no reports of killer whales. We left the dock anyway, and headed North out of Roche Harbor towards Stuart Island.

While answering questions about everything from whales to jellyfish to sharks and octopus, Jim and I were also scanning for Whales. Before long, we spotted dorsal fins heading towards Turn Point, the furthest...

A Long day and perhaps a shorter than normal post.

Capt. Gabe and I took two tours out with us today and we were blessed with the fast that s small portion of the Southern Residents were already moving south from Point Roberts, and moving fast! The heat wave we had a few days ago had broken so we had cool breezes and a very sunny San Juan morning. The orcas were apparently on a tight cetacean schedule because they beat us to East Point off of Saturna Island. It was the K...

Today Captain Gabe and I took out the Seahawk with a fantastic group onboard to go check out some of the unique wildlife in the Salish Sea. While we had a beautiful day in the harbor with the sun shining and the whale reports were good, it was just a bit windy out in the Haro Strait.

Our prevailing winds in this area usually come out of the SouthWest. For the San Juan Islands, this means a calm day on the water because the Olympic Mointains shield us from the worst of the...

Do you ever feel like a day can't get any better? That's how I felt after we left Roche Harbor aboard the Seahawk on Thursday. It was a cool, sunny summer day and we were headed north, to Canada! While we crossed the glittering water in the afternoon sun we got to see some super views on both sides of Spieden Island and headed straight for East Point on Saturna Island. We soon started seeing some blows and tell-tale dark dorsal fins in the distance. It was a group of J...

Today Captain Pete and I left the dock on the Seahawk with a glorious sunny day, a boat full of curious and excited passengers, and plenty of whale reports from which to choose. Armed with our whale knowledge and eagerness to see wildlife, we headed North out of Roche Harbor. Right off the bat we were greeted in Mosquito Pass with a great blue heron taking off with its large, slow wingbeats as well as a bald eagle perched in a tree.

Heading out into Haro Strait towards...

Wondrous weather here in the San Juans, however it was a bit touch and go on whale reports at the beginning of the day. However, that was quickly going to change as the day progressed. With all the new baby hoopla it would have been quite a disappointment not to see members of L Pod around the area-luckily the whales aren't ones to disappoint! About halfway down San Juan Island we heard reports of L Pod moving up island from Whidbey Island! Once we arrived at False bay we...

Today the M/V Sea Hawk left Roche Harbor for two trips! We ended up catching up with my personal favorite matriline in the entire southern resident community: the J16s, comprised of Mom, J16 (Slick) and her three offspring, J26 (Mike),  J36 (Alki), and little seven year old J46 (Echo).  We watched them come down from Turn Point on Stewart Island, the most northwesterly part of the continental US. They traveled down at high speeds,  then spread out to forage! We also...

San Juan Island sea kayak wildlife update for Sunday, June 6th:

Emily paddled out on her first 3 hour sea kayak tour of the season and what a way to start the summer! She saw a red fox on the beach, numerous harbor seals and eagles, lots of shore birds and our Southern Resident Killer Whales! Off the west side of Henry Island and moving north, she and her guests saw a few small groups at a time, from all 3 pods-- the SUPERPOD! J's, K's and L's were present and all slowly...