killer whales

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...

Today's whale watching trip out of Roche Harbor, San Juan Island, was THE most amazing trip in the San Juan Islands that I can remember! Our trip started with limited knowledge of where our resident killer whales were located and it seemed that they might have been out of range for our trip. However, it wasn't long before our luck turned and soon we were getting great looks of J-pod in every direction - and some of them were even breaching!!! This, however, was not the...

San Juan Outfitters wildife report for Saturday, July 4th:

I paddled out on a 5 hour Whale Sanctuary Tour yesterday, and boy did we see whales! As we paddled down the west side we saw whales from J and K pod all spread out along the Haro Strait. We rafted up in a patch of bull kelp and watched them swim by for a long time. It was gorgeous watching them surface, and we even saw mothers and calves! The highlights were definitely seeing some behaviors like tail slaps...

San Juan Island sea kayak wildlife update for Tuesday June 8th:

Yesterday I paddled out on our whale sanctuary 5 hour sea kayak tour. We left under blue skies but stiff breezes, and had a gorgeous day on the water. We saw and heard bald eagles, harbor seals, cormorants, black oystercatchers and more! We were down by lime kiln when we received reports that L pod was coming up island from the south, so all our fingers were tightly crossed and we waited in hope, but then the...

Captain Brian G. and I went out for a private charter this morning, and what a gorgeous morning it was! Some spectacular highlights were watching a peregrine falcon in flight (3 different times!) off Turn Point, watching a school of harbor porpoise race towards an oncoming boat and bow ride (not typical behavior), and getting some amazing views of a large herd of male mouflon sheep. They were off by themselves, and we saw some good examples of aggression between...

The population of the Southern Resident Killer (Orca) Whales is still on the rise! Sunday was the first sighting of brand new calf L114, to first-time mom L77, Matia. This birth brings our current total to 89 whales!
Typically in the winter months the southern resident orca whales disperse and travel much more, so last week's SUPERPOD of all three resident orca pods (J, K, & L) together in the straits was cause for excitement!
Here at San Juan Outfitters we're...

It's technically winter here-- although all this sunshine would make anyone doubt it-- and although it's not prime whale season here in the Salish Sea, they've been popping up everywhere!

This week a humpback was spotted off the southern tip of Whidbey Island, a gray whale spotted near Camano Island and a small pod of four orcas were spotted in the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca (south of Vancouver Island).

Both resident (fish eating) and transient (mammal eating) killer whales, also known as orca whales, live in the waters surrounding the San Juan Islands. The Salish Sea is home to a huge amount of biodiversity, allowing animals large and small to thrive. There is a lot of research being conducted on the whales, and one way scientists gather information is by recording underwater acoustics using hydrophones. This allows data on whales to be collected even when they...