killer whale

Today Captain Gabe and I had a wonderful day aboard the M/V Seahawk cruising down the west side of San Juan Island. The water was gorgeous and smooth, and it was one of our first warm days out on the water. I was happily wrapped in a fleece while cruising, but while sitting watching the whales the sun was just perfection! We spent plenty of time with some of the J16 matriline, including one of my favorite whales J26 Mike. J26 Mike is a full grown male killer whale, so he...

Today Captain Jim and Naturalist Mike boarded the M/V/ Sea Hawk with a boat full of happy people: some celebrating a wedding, some on a honeymoon and some celebrating a 50th wedding anniversary! We love going out with happy people, and they were about to become much happier as we broke the news to them that we had reports of J Pod, part of the Southern Resident Killer Whale population, heading our way!

We left the dock heading North out of Roche Harbor and didn't spend...

We had more great news yesterday when NOAA reported a new member of L Pod!  NOAA, who has been conducting research on the Southern Resident Orcas located L Pod off of Westport WA.  Westport is located on the Pacific Coast near the Columbia River.  L94 appears to be the mother to young L121.  This is the second calf for L94, Calypso, who had L113 in 2009.  L119, born in 2012, is the last calf that has survived in L Pod.  In the fall of 2014 L120, born to L86, only...

Late last week another baby orca was spotted in the Salish Sea and confirmed by the Center for Whale Research.  The newest member belongs to J Pod and is designated J51.  The calf of 36 year old J19 seemed to be happy and healthy as it swam alongside its mother.  It is estimated that the calf is about a week and a half old.  J50, born at the end of 2014, was also spotted looking healthy and energetic.  J50 has even been confirmed a female, which is great news for J...

Across all the worlds oceans there are at least 10 ecotypes of orcas, and possibly even more.  An ecotype is a distinct population of animals separated by diets, region, or social factors from the whole species.  Currently there is only one Orcinus Orca, but some argue that is it time to give separate species names to some of these ecotypes. Here in the Pacific Northwest, we have what are known as resident orcas.   Resident orcas diverged genetically about 13,000 years...

Today we had a great time with the Southern Resident Killer Whales of J Pod! The M/V Sea Hawk left Roche Harbor and motored out to the north end of Stewart Island where we caught up with the J14's, J16's, J19's and L87 off Turn Point. When we got on seen we watched as J19, Sachi, came full out of the water in a high breach! Guest were all very excited to see such an amazing display of behavior (as was I)! The whales continued to be very active and broke up into different...

Today was one of those real special paddles.  We started our 5-hour trip heading north and viewing a pair of bald eagles and getting some up close looks at some harbor seals.  We continued our paddle by heading south down the west side of Henry Island.  As we continued heading south I noticed many boats in the same area gradually coming closer and closer.   By the time we made to a place called Kellet Bluff the whales were right behind us.  Jackpot.  We found a nice...

Today's 5-hour kayak trip started out shaky, we were facing some pretty strong winds that ultimately made us alter our course of where we were going to paddle.  I'm sure glad we did change our direction though because we ended up encountering four orcas around Kellet Bluff area.  The big male in the group was putting on quite the show for us as well.  We saw him fully breach three times as well as do a couple cartwheels, all of this occurring only about 100 yards in front...

What an amazing trip we had today! We left our dock today in Friday Harbor without any whale reports once again, so Captain Mike and I decided we were going to head north to see what we could find in that region. We were looking for transient killer whales; this kind of killer whale hunts marine mammals. There is ample food for them north of San Juan Island including harbor seals, harbor porpoise, Steller Sea Lions (the largest in the world), and even Dall's...

What started out as a grey San Juan day, turned into an excellent day of sunshine and fun on the water! Naturalist Andrew and Captains Nancy and Chris encountered members Jpod and Lpod today off of the North West coast of San Juan Island. While traveling with the whales whale watch guests saw lots of spy hops and breaching. A young orca in the group was very active and got a lot of air while breaching! The orcas were swimming very close to shore around Kellett Bluff on...