San Juan Island Adventures

Guests were excited to search for killer whales as we departed Roche Harbor on the Sea Hawk. We had received reports of resident killer whales at Hannah Heights along the west side of San Juan Island. As we moved towards the whales, they also travelled south and spent most of their time at cattle point, the southernmost tip of the island. Guests were fortunate enough to see J-Pod, the beloved resident pod! The Sea Hawk stopped at the beginning of the pod and allowed it to...

Guests were excited as we departed Roche Harbor and headed straight for Friday Harbor, and straight for the killer whale reports. Once arriving on scene, guests got great looks at the T-49s otherwise known as the transient killer whales. We were lucky enough to see two spy hops and some social behavior!

While sitting right outside of Friday Harbor, guests began wondering about the history of the San Juan Islands (SJI). The islands are over 100 million years old, and can...

Today is J pod's third day back in the Salish Sea after about a month of absence. We were thrilled the hear that they were making their way to the west side of San Juan Island this morning, just in time for the Seahawk's first trip of the day! We headed out of Roche Harbor through Mosquito Pass and rounded the corner to the west side. Pretty soon we got into view of Lim Kiln Lighthouse, and were greeted by the members of the J16 family group!

We watched Mike as he...

Guests felt anxious as we pulled off the dock due to lack of reports; however, once leaving Roche Harbor we were given reports of black and whites up in Active Pass. Black and whites is a common nickname given to the killer whales, especially amongst captain and crew. As we travelled towards Active Pass in Canada, the whales also began moving towards us! We met up with three transients in Otter Bay – one female, a sprouting male and a young calf. Sprouting male is a term...

Guests were skeptical as we pulled out of Roche Harbor due to the lack of whale reports; however, Roche Harbor had lots of boat traffic and is relatively tucked away from the radio signal. Therefore, once we pulled out and received whale reports right off of Lopez Island’s ferry dock, I was not surprised but also very relieved. We made our way to the transient killer whale siting and once on scene were able to spend a full hour enjoying traveling with the whales. Because...

We left the dock with high hopes of finding resident killer whales based on positive reports received earlier in the morning. However, as we travelled towards the reports our dedicated whale watching guests spotted two male transient killer whales off of the coast of Spieden Island on route! Guests were able to enjoy watching these exceptionally large males with their 6ft tall dorsal fins and approximate 12000lb bodies for over half an hour. After that we decided to...

Guests were skeptical as the Sea Hawk departed Roche Harbor in attempts of finding killer whales because there were no reports. However, not even 20 minutes into the trip the guests came up on a spur of the moment siting of T-124c, otherwise known as a lone transient killer whale male! Killer whale pods tend to travel as a family unit with mom and/or grandma as the leader; however, transients are also more likely to stray away from this organization, opposed to our...

As we departed Roche Harbor on the Sea Hawk, guests were hopeful of spotting orca whales. The morning reports had seemed positive, I indicating transient killer whales in Boundary Pass (the pass that divides US waters and Canadian waters). On route to the reports, we spotted a group of playful harbor porpoises. Harbor porpoises are typically timid of stopped boats, so being able to stop our boat and get up close views was very special. They typically travel in groups of 2...

So I Know that I talk a lot about how social orcas are and how they are almost always found in their family groups, but like almost everything else there are exceptions to these rules as well. Yesterday (Wednesday) Captain Gabe and I left with a pretty small group to search for some more Transient Orcas. Just around Friday Harbor we came across a pair of male Transient Orcas! This is a little bit unusual, but definitely sometimes happens, especially in the Transients...

Two young transient orcas breach at the same time right next to each other.

WOW. WOW OH WOW. I'm not even sure how to start describing today's trip. It my hands down my best trip of the season. We cruised out of Roche Harbor and immediately encountered a group of 9 transient killer whales. One adult male (T49C) seemed to be trying to start a party--or something. He was tail slapping non-stop. No one else appeared to want anything to do with it. It actually looked as if...