orcas

Piper | Sunday, May 19, 2019 | M/V Sea Hawk | 12:00 PM

Today our guests aboard the Sea Hawk were celebrating a wedding in Roche Harbor and boy did they pick a great day for a whale watch! There had been reports of rain for today but instead all we saw were sunny skies! Just before we left the docks a report of Bigg's killer whales came through; they’d been picked up just off Moresby Island and were hanging out there taking down a bunch of harbor seals! We motored over...

Piper | August 29, 2018 | M/V Sea Hawk | 2:00 PM

This afternoon Captain Sarah, our lovely guests, and I boarded the M/V Sea Hawk in Roche Harbor and made our way into Spieden Channel and west toward a report of two humpbacks close-by. Not even 10 minutes later we were slowing our engine as we approached the scene. The humpbacks had been on a six-minute dive and we were searching in the distance to see where they’d appear when *KOOSH, KOOSH* the two behemoths surfaced...

[Sunday, 6/17/18 - M/V Seahawk - 12:00 - Naturalist Erick]

This Sunday we had a lovely time taking a great group of folks out aboard M/V Seahawk to search for some marine wildlife in the Salish Sea. Captain Brian and myself left Roche Harbor and wound our way through Mosquito Pass until we exited into Haro Strait. We started south along the western shore of San Juan Island. We cruised by the big cliffs on the northern part of the shoreline and once we reached Lime Kiln...

[Saturday, 5/26/18 - M/V Seahawk - 3:00PM - Naturalist Erick]

This Memorial Day Weekend we got a little taste of summer. The sun was out it was a little bit warm for May and we have a lot of trips going out. On Saturday afternoon Captain Pete and I took Seahawk out with a great group of folks to go on another search of the Salish Sea for some interesting creatures. We first crossed Spieden Channel and scurried through the skinny Johns Pass and took looks out into...

[Sarah M - 08/17/2017 - M/V Seahawk - 02:00pm]

M/V Seahawk has had an excellent season of whale watching here in the San Juan Islands. We have had the chance to explore some waters that we do not usually get to check out due to the abundance of the very tricky transient killer whales in our waters. On August 17th we got to meet up with the T030s as they travelled inter-island. This was the first time I had ever encountered this family! Please enjoy some shots from the day...

[Naturalist Erick D., M/V Seahawk, 8/29/17, 2:00PM]

            The other day Captain Joe and I took a small lovely group aboard the M/V Seahawk. We went far but we got to a group of Transient Orcas swimming south in Rosario Strait. Today was pretty interesting because there were three different Transient Orca groups that had traveled almost the same exact route just at different times throughout the day. We saw one of the three groups just south of Lydia Reef in...

[Lauren Fritz, M/V Seahawk, 08/12/17, 2 pm Tour]

Don't you just love when you can spot killer whales near your home turf? Every day is different and unpredictable out here in the San Juans, but today we had the chance to observe a family pod of Transient orcas in San Juan Channel - moments after we were watching a humpback! It was a whale watching jackpot day. 

Captain Joe and I greeted our guests on the dock at Roche Harbor, excited to see what was in store for the day...

[Sarah M. – 07/21/2017 – M/V Seahawk – 02:00pm]

Today the M/V Seahawk had a breathtaking afternoon whale watch from Roche Harbor. We had some much-needed rain and it yielded a true Pacific Northwest feel as we cruised the Salish Sea with some liquid sunshine falling the sky.

As we left the harbor we had two reports of orcas in the area, one far to the south, another to the far north. We made the decision to head to the northern group, and Captain Joe steered the M/V...

[Naturalist Erick. D., M/V Seahawk, 7/18/17 2:00PM]

            For the whole summer we have been seeing almost all Transient (Bigg’s) Orcas. Those are the mammal-eating ones, and despite their old common name we see them in the Salish Sea just as much as the Southern Residents we just tend to see them more in the winter and spring when the residents are absent and there is an increase in the marine mammal population including Steller Sea Lions, California Sea Lions...