killer whales

A Long day and perhaps a shorter than normal post.

Capt. Gabe and I took two tours out with us today and we were blessed with the fast that s small portion of the Southern Residents were already moving south from Point Roberts, and moving fast! The heat wave we had a few days ago had broken so we had cool breezes and a very sunny San Juan morning. The orcas were apparently on a tight cetacean schedule because they beat us to East Point off of Saturna Island. It was the K...

Do you ever feel like a day can't get any better? That's how I felt after we left Roche Harbor aboard the Seahawk on Thursday. It was a cool, sunny summer day and we were headed north, to Canada! While we crossed the glittering water in the afternoon sun we got to see some super views on both sides of Spieden Island and headed straight for East Point on Saturna Island. We soon started seeing some blows and tell-tale dark dorsal fins in the distance. It was a group of J...

It was a cool morning, and the reports that Capt. Gabe and I were hearing were that most of our nearby Southern Resident Orcas were on the south end of San Juan Island. But, one family group, the J-16's were headed east from Discovery Island in Canada! So we all headed out of Roche Harbor to meet up with one of my family groups. So, the Southern Resident Killer Whales that live here live in large groups called pods, and each of these three pods - J, K, and L - are made up...

Today Captain Gabe and I left the dock on the Seahawk with a boat full of excited passengers and reports of whales. I was particularly excited because I have been off the water and away from the wonders of the ocean for a few days. As we motored through mosquito pass under the hazy sky, we began to rack up the wildlife sightings with a great blue heron lazily flapping by and some playful river otters fearlessly running around on some rocks.

We didn't have long to wait...

Today Captain Gabe and I left the dock with warm weather, calm seas, a boat full of excited passengers and best of all, Whale Reports!! We headed North off the dock to find some wildlife. As we exited Mosquito Pass, we spotted a small pod of harbor porpoise so we decided to watch them slip in and out of the calm water. Harbor porpoise are the smallest cetacean (whales, dolphins and porpoises) found in the Salish Sea, and were at one point the most abundant. They spend...

6/26/15:

San Juan Outfitters five hour tour departed Roche Harbor at 11:30am this morning and travelled South through Mosquito Pass.  The conditions were fantastic; a balmy 75 Fahrenheit and just enough breeze to offer our paddlers relief from the cloudless skies.  After taking a quick lunch at Open Bay, we were met by several J-Pod resident Orcas and enjoyed witnessing tail slaps and breaches from under fifty yards away.  Whether it's your first time or your hundredth...

What can I say, J pod, with a capital J, has been seeming to love the west side of San Juan Island lately. The Southern Residents were booking it north from Hein Bank up Haro Strait. So Capt. Gabe and I went south on the Seahawk and met them about half way down (south) San Juan Island. We stayed parallel with the front runners of the pod as they moved north. Among this smaller J pod group was Granny (J-2), the OLDEST LIVING ORCA (that we know of)!!! It's estimated that...

Today Captain Pete and I left the dock on the Seahawk with a glorious sunny day, a boat full of curious and excited passengers, and plenty of whale reports from which to choose. Armed with our whale knowledge and eagerness to see wildlife, we headed North out of Roche Harbor. Right off the bat we were greeted in Mosquito Pass with a great blue heron taking off with its large, slow wingbeats as well as a bald eagle perched in a tree.

Heading out into Haro Strait towards...

Today Captain Gabe, Brian and myself took out the Seahawk with a boat full of excited passengers and a clear blue sky looking for wildlife. We had no reports of whales when we left the dock so we began to head north to see what we could find when left to our own devices. Up near Spieden Island we encountered maybe 40 or 50 harbor seals both hauled out on an exposed reef as well as swimming around in the water. One inportant way to differentiate seals from sinilar animals...

Today Captain Pete and I took an excellent group out on the Sea Hawk to look for wildlife. We had heard that there was some Killer Whale action East of Orcas Island in Rosario Strait, so we began our long luxurious cruise in between Orcas and Shaw/Lopez. Along the way we saw plenty of Harbor Seals and bald eagles until in the distance we began to see lots of puffs of air and black dorsal fins sneaking out of the water.

We came up on about half of J Pod as they were...