San Juan Island Adventures

A local west side resident "heard" transient Killer Whale vocalizations on Sunday and confirmed transients off the West Side of San Juan Island headed towards Victoria. This put them in line with Kelp Reef and Dangerous Shoal, which is where I often see Transients hunting Dalls Porpoise, Harbor Porpoise, and Stellar Sea Lions. The Transients were later identified as the T-30's. Lot of Killer Whale sightings recently. Great news for our ecosystem.

Since we have not blogged since late last week, there are have been many killer whale sightings to report. We'll start with the resident J's and K's that were spending lots of time in Seattle last week. Those same whales were spotted off Victoria on Sunday moving East. Some local whale watch tours from Victoria and San Juan Island were able to spot them and confirm J-pod individuals. We were not on the water that day, although it wasn't a bad day out there. I'll be...

For our readers who live in the Seattle area, the southern resident killer whale groups spotted in the area recently are continuing to forage both in the north and south sound area. Killer whales were spotted in Saratoga Passage and Admiralty inlet through the weekend. There were also reports of Killer Whales in Haro Strait on the west side of San Juan Island yesterday, but they have not been confirmed. We're running trips this weekend, with cool and clear weather...

Here is the latest on the Seattle Killer Whale sightings. Over the weekend of February 5-6, the same groups of J-pod and K-pod whales were sighted throughout the Seattle area. Whales were spotted in Elliott Bay, West Seattle, and Bremerton. There were also Transient Killer Whales spotted in Haro Strait and the Straits of Juan de Fuca near Victoria. For those in the Seattle area who read our blog, we'll try to update you on sighting in Seattle today. If you're near...

Killer Whales (Orcas) were spotted again yesterday in the northern part of Seattle and "south" sound. Moving northbound, they were spotted in Saratoga Passage and along the shore of Whidbey Island. There were reports that whales were also near Port Angeles. No confirmed identifications were made, but the Killer Whales were very likely to be the J-pod and K-pod individuals spotted during the past few weeks. Since the whales were traveling out of the south sound in a...

Updating our blog followers on recent Killer Whale and other wildlife sightings, the same group of Southern Resident Killer Whales continue to be spotted around San Juan Island. The group was first sighted about a week ago in San Juan Channel, and were last seen moving west bound out the straights of Juan de Fuca. Then reports came in over the past few days that whales were being spotted off Vashon Island, and in the Seattle area. Positive identification was made that...

Despite the cool overcast weather and 70% chance of rain, we're going for a sea kayak tour today! If you dress properly, sea kayaking on days like today can be beautiful. There is little wind, so the seas should be calm. We're expecting to see lots of seals, porpoise, eagles and more. Maybe even a glimpse of some Killer Whales if we're lucky. Several groups of Transient Killer Whales have been in the area, as well as some of our Southern Resident Community of Killer...

On January 26th, a group of Killer Whales were spotted in San Juan Channel. It turned out to be members of our local J-pod and K-pod, confirmed by local whale watch experts. The whales continued past Friday Harbor out Cattle Pass, and up the West side of San Juan Island for a awhile before heading offshore towards Discovery Island and Victoria BC. It seems like we're having Killer Whale sightings about every week to ten days. Let's hope that means lots of fish! More...

As we posted last week, all three of our Southern Resident Killer Whale pods were spotted in Haro Strait, just off the west side of San Juan Island. It's not uncommon to see our Southern Resident Killer Whales in the winter, however it's a bit uncommon for them to be all together. We did a little research and local fishermen believe there is a large influx of local "Blackmouth" salmon, which are native Kings Salmon. These fish would be foraging in the waters throughout...

For all of our readers, we have some exciting news. The New York Times has named the San Juan Islands the #2 place in the world to visit in 2011! We're excited about the attention, and no doubt a visit to the San Juan Islands means time on and around the water. At San Juan Island Outfitters, we'll be offering a variety of sea kayak and whale watch itineraries and family vacations this summer.