Henry Island

Olivia | September 1st, 2019 | M/V Sea Hawk | 2:00pm

It is always wonderful leaving the dock with reports of whales in the area. We had potential Minke, Humpback, Gray, and Killer Whales today, but with their far distance apart from one another, Captain Sarah decided to go see something black and white swimming around. That being said, we left Roche Harbor, took a turn around Henry Island, and headed southwest across Haro Strait towards D’Arcy Island.

The Haro Strait was...

Jordan | July 25, 2018 | M/V Sea Hawk | 2:00 trip

Today was a great “hump day” Wednesday out on the water! As Captain Sarah and I headed out of Roche Harbor, we immediately began to see wildlife! There were massive salmon right in the harbor jumping and splashing about. Then, we saw a harbor seal with her pup swimming right next to the boat, peering up at our excited guests!

Soon after our first nature sightings, it didn’t take long until we found our whales! We found the...

Today we got geared up and headed out on a 5 hour kayaking trip out of Roche Harbor.  We started out by seeing lot's of harbor seals once we paddled to the Haro Strait.  Continuing south we had the opportunity to see a juvenile bald eagle as well as an adult hanging out in a 5 foot wide nest.  Not long after we were surprised by orcas appearing off our right hand side.  We got to spend about 15 minutes with the whales before they swam off and got looks as close as 50...

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...

Transient killer whales exaggeratedly coming out of the water to breath, a behavior we often see when the whales are moving quickly.

Captain Gabe, Captain Jim and I made a quick 15-minute turn around between our first and second trip of the day. We were in a bit of a hurry due to a longer first tour, and we wanted to get out to the west side of the island so that on our second tour, we could spend as much time as possible with the orcas that were spotted there. When...

This Tuesday, May 3^rd we set out again on another warm, sunny day. Today it was Captain Brian and I heading north with a great crew of folks form all over world here for various conferences in Seattle. Since it was a little bit hotter today everything was spending as much time in the water as possible. The Harbor Seals would poke their heads up to stare at us, and the Steller’s Sea Lions were rafting up together, doing spins, an loudly snorting their exhales up and out of...

I don’t know about you, but I love babies, and most of all I love orca babies! Especially when they spyhop and fluke and are extra chubby. First though I got to back up. This Saturday, the M/V Sea Lion received reports of killer whales off the west side of San Juan Island, heading north through Haro Strait. We set off with Capt. Mike, Naturalist Sarah, and myself to go find these big, black and white animals on another spectacularly beautiful, sunny, spring day.

As we...

We woke up this morning and it felt like summer! The sun was shining, the sky was that special shade of San Juan blue, and there were reports of whales! We headed north out of the harbor skirting the shore of San Juan Island. There were so many bald eagles out and about today, pretty much everywhere we looked we could find one! I think our end count today on eagles was right around 29 individuals!

We headed out into the northern portion of Haro Strait to a pair of...

What an incredible afternoon with K Pod! The Seahawk left Roche Harbor with positive reports of our Southern Resident killer whales. On our way to the whales we headed north out of Roche Harbor towards Battleship Island. As we rounded the north side of Henry Island we got some awesome views of both the amazing diving cormorants (medium-sized black birds with long necks , who nest on the cliffs at Kellett Bluff) as well as some beautiful bald eagles in our area. Bald...

Today was a great day to be on the 5 hour kayaking trip.  We started out the day seeing a plethora of seals hauling out together, even seeing some mother seals and their pups! We then came across several bald eagles.  Upon pulling up onto a beach for lunch we had a beautiful eagle sitting right above us.  Later on we came across some really cool purple ochre sea stars and a male harbor seal put on a display by causing some big splashes.  To end our day we finally got to...