Henry Island

A 3-hour family kayak tour departed Roche Harbor on an unexpectedly sunny day on the island, as always with hopes of catching a glimpse of the incredible wildlife here in the San Juans. Leisurely making our way to the west side of Henry Island, we bumped into a few members of J-pod making their way north to Turn Point on Stuart Island. Today, the whales were in transit mode, so we caught the pod porpoising and making their way towards Boundary Pass, of course with...

With sunny skies and a soft breeze we had the perfect recipe for our 3-hour tours today, complete with many sightings of the iconic wildlife of the Salish Sea and San Juan Islands. Harbor seals swam gleefully around our boats, Bald Eagles stood stoic in the tallest of trees and Harbor Porpoises surfaced on the horizon of the Haro Strait as we paddled down the West side of Henry Island. Overall, a lovely and delightful day on the water.

Kayak guide Courtney, 3-hour tour...

The beautiful sun sparkled on the water all day for us on our 5 hour circumnavigation of Henry Island today. The harbor seals were too many to count throughout Mosquito Pass and all along the west side of Henry Island. Some of the male harbor seals even delighted us with their mating dance, jumping out of the water and slapping their flippers on the surface. We had tons of fun talking about seaweed in the kelp forests, making bull kelp horns and even snacking on the...

Just got back from an epic kayak tour! We saw whales breaching in the distance as we sat in kelp beds surrounded by harbor seals. The paddle back was blessed with some huge lions mane jellyfish! What a day!

San Juan Outfitters Kayak Guide Owen, 3 hour tour, July 27, 2014

Our 5-hour paddle today was full of iconic Pacific Northwest wildlife sightings!  We counted several Bald Eagles, some soaring and some perched in tree tops, others dive bombing for big fish. Harbor seals swam playfully around our boats as we paddled along the West side of Henry Island. With the wind at our backs and a flooding current carrying us forth, we felt quite rewarded during the second half of our paddle after working hard against some southwest wind coming...

M/V Sea Hawk departed on the 3pm trip in hopes to head north. However, Captain Jim heard a report of Orcas closer, so we headed south out of Mosquito Pass. Earlier in the day we saw Js and Ks separate, Js moving north and Ks moving south. By the time we left, Js were already in the Strait of Georgia and Ks were around Eagle Point milling.

Since we know these are resident orcas, we know they are following the Chinook Salmon up to the Frasier River. This is exactly where Js...

We started off our 5 hour tour by heading South through Mosquito Pass, sighting harbor seals, sea stars, jellies and eagles along the way. After lunch, we began our paddle along the West side of Henry Island, and just before reaching Half Moon Bay, we spotted Resident Orca Whales surfacing several hundred yards offshore! We rafted up and gently drifted as we watched them play and feed as they headed South through the Haro Strait. Thinking most of them had passed, we...

Starting off with low tide of -1.2 vertical ft, our morning tour had amazing access to a colorful display of red, green and brown seaweeds, purple Ochre sea stars and bright orange anemones. We also got to see lots of fuzzy harbor seals hauled out on high rocks in the kelp forest, and a juvenile bald eagle greeted us from a snag on our way back into Roche Harbor. Later, we saw two adult bald eagles holding high posts on the west side of Henry Island, accompanied by more...

M/V Sea Hawk got to experience some curious resident orcas this afternoon. Captain Chris and myself took our guests over to the west side of San Juan Island to encounter J-pod. When we approached the orcas they were porpoising quickly and high out of the water. A lot of the time when we see them doing this, they are picking up speed while traveling.

We watched Granny's group travel past us and then slow down. They started to socialize with one another and it looked as...

Another fabulous day on San Juan Island! Our Owner and Captain Brian was out on the water today and spotted transient orcas near Henry Island late this morning.  T18 was out with the T19 group hunting in Open Bay and off Battleship Island.  We often see these transient orcas in the summer months as well.  Harbor seals were the main course this morning, a favorite of transient orcas.  Brian observed lots a vocalizations after the hunt was over.  Transients are often...