spieden island

Jordan | August 1, 2018 | M/V Sea Hawk | 2:00 trip

Today was a great day for the Sea Hawk! It was a sunny day with a crisp breeze and Captain Sarah and I heard reports of whales up in Canada so we headed north. We passed by Spieden, alongside Waldron, across Boundary Pass and up towards East Point off of Saturna Island.

Here we found J pod! J pod is one of only three Southern Resident pods that are found within the San Juan islands. Here we found them traveling south from...

Lauren Fritz, M/V Sea Hawk, 07/26/17, 2:00 pm Charter

Wow! What a wonderful day out on the water. We had a wonderful group joining us on board the Sea Hawk. Captain Pete and I were excited to tour Henry and Spieden Islands before we heard of a humpback up north by Patos Island. What a treat to see this huge filter-feeder! Check out some of my favorite photos from the trip. Thanks to those of you who joined us on board today.

Naturalist Lauren, San Juan Outfitters

Calf surfaces just behind mother. This is often called eschelon swimming, when the baby is just being pulled in adults slip stream.

Aboard the M/V Sea Hawk, guests were excited about reports of transient killer whales off of the shore of county park. However, as we departed Roche Harbor and out of mosquito pass, guests were treated with a surprise! We ran into granny the 105 year old killer whale female and a member of J-Pod! With Oynx shortly behind her, a member of L...

The Sea Hawk took out an intimate tour in hopes of finding a few humpback whales; however, as we began our departure from Mosquito Pass we received reports of transient killer whales near Vancouver Island! In a sudden turn of events we headed north and began our wildlife tour. Once arriving on scene we were able to travel along side of the T’s (a pod of transient) for a considerable distance. We were able to get stunning views of the unique saddle patch on each whale and...

This morning, M/V Sea Hawk motored north toward Stuart Island. Just in between Spieden Island and Stuart Island we encountered a group offshore. We first saw a few of them porpoising quickly through the strait, and soon after we saw the whole family porpoising quickly out of the water. By doing this activity the group sped up to 12 knots! This is a pretty fast pace for our Resident Orcas to be traveling at. After trying to keep up with this lead group, we heard of another...

Friday and Saturday the Sea Hawk went out with reports of our resident orcas. Friday Captain Brian and Naturalist Aimee motored out of Roche Harbor and headed south toward False Bay. False Bay is on the west side of San Juan Island. We caught up with a female and a calf swimming. Brian and Aimee identified the calf and J-49 who was born last summer. Newborns are usually six to eight feet and around 400lbs! After seeing those two, two more mother and calf pairs swam by...

The blustery weather cleared long enough for Captain Brian and I to set out on a whale watch tour. We were hoping for a sighting of transient orcas (killer whales), but no luck. We were lucky with a few harbor porpoise sightings, many many harbor seals, a number of bald eagles displaying interesting behavior and a wonderful up close look at a peregrine falcon sitting just a few feet away!

We also drove very close to Spieden Island where we were able to see large...