San Juan Island Adventures

J37 Hy'Shqa breaching

I was shocked to have residents back in today. They left on Saturday, and I was expecting them to take a long absence. Luckily, J pod must have come back in late last night, because there were some way up north in the Strait of Georgia. Even luckier for us, there were some on the west side of San Juan Island. We left Roche Harbor through Mosquito Pass, thinking we were going to head down toward Eagle Point. However, before we got all the way...

Gull grabbing small bait fish from a bait ball at the surface.

About 2.5 hours in to hour 3-hour tour this afternoon, Captain Gabe, and I, along with the 22 guests on board, began to make our way back toward Roche Harbor. We had already encountered a ton of wildlife. This included a few species of birds foraging over a bait ball (pictured). We observed flying bald eagles, roosting cormorants, harbor porpoise, harbor seal, and even the (non-native) mouflon sheep of...

Southern resident killer whale with kelp string between the lobes of her flukes. This play behavior is called "kelping."

This morning, Captain Jim and I departed Roche Harbor with positive reports of some southern resident killer whales north of us, in Boundary Pass. So, we cruised north past Speiden, through John’s Pass, and eventually caught up with the whales a few miles northeast of Turn Point. I immediately recognized J42 Echo, and therefore knew that we had to...

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 past few weeks things have been very busy here. Part of the Southern Residents have been in our waters for a few weeks foraging. The annual conference of orca fans, enthusiasts, and researchers called SuperPod has been in town, and the weather has finally started to feel like summer. Yesterday (Wednesday) Captain Gabe and I went south with a great group south along the west side of San Juan Island. It is called the Haro Strait and this deep trench leading northward is...

Summer is in full swing in the San Juans! The sun is shining, the residents are back, and flocks of happy vacationers are enjoying our beautiful scenery and wildlife every day. This afternoon we left Roche Harbor to a 70 degree day with calm seas and a good report of resident killer whales just off of Pile Point on the southwest side of San Juan Island. There's no better way to start your Sunday afternoon!

We headed out of Roche Harbor and through Mosquito Pass to get to...

The only way I have come to describe days like yesterday is “San Juan Special.” Those days that I am trying to explain the area to guests and the only thing I feel like I can say, “Do you see how beautiful this is?!”

You could have water skied on the mighty Haro Strait yesterday, and it was difficult to tell where the water ended and the sky began at the horizon. The whole strait felt still and it was a magical day to encounter some wildlife.

The M/V Seahawk left the...

Did you know that orcas, like humans are very family oriented? You have probably heard of ‘’pods before which is a word that usually describes a group of any species of whale, but in orcas especially the Southern Resident Ecotype, pods resemble large extended families. The smaller groups of orcas within these pods are referred to as matrilines. Matrilines consist of the matriarch (the oldest female) and her offspring, sometimes even several generations of offspring. This...

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

This morning, Captain Gabe, our 18 excited guests, and I left the dock with the intention of heading south toward some reported Southern Resident killer whales.

Before we had actually left the harbor, Gabe came down from the helm to let us know that some whales had been spotted up north, moving south. With those being a bit closer, we...

Today we started out by launching out of county park and started paddling north on a 5-hour kayaking trip.  The weather was perfect with blue skies and sunshine the entire trip.  Not long after being on the water we were surprised by a harbor seal popping up with 15 yards with what looked like a canary rockfish in its mouth.  We got to watch it gorge itself for awhile before paddling on.  We stopped for lunch and were just finishing up when we spotted a bull orca.  So we...