san juan island

Today Captain Jim and I took off on the ol' Seahawk with a boatload of excited and curious passengers from Kentucky to Alaska, sun in the sky, and wildlife on the brain. As we left Roche Harbor headed North, it didn't take us long to find what we were looking for: ORCAS!!

We caught up with the Southern Resident Killer Whale community just past Battleship rock (a bird sanctuary that was mistaken for an American warship by British troops during the Pig War) and watched...

Today Captain Gabe and I had quite the adventure on the Seahawk.

We left the dock at Roche Harbor pretty early to pick up a great family in Friday Harbor. We enjoyed the quiet, early morning cruise from Roche Harbor to Friday Harbor through the San Juan Channel, scanning for wildlife that we might come back up and share with our guests later. No dice, however; nothing but seagulls making themselves evident this time of the morning. We decided to switch to plan B, to...

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...

Each Orca has a grayish-white area directly behind their dorsal fin that we call the saddlepatch. On each orca this patch is a little bit different and when we look at both the saddlepatch and the dorsal fin we can begin to pick out individuals in the pod. Today we had a great opportunity to begin to pick out individuals from the 81 members of the Southern Resident Killer Whales. Capt. Gabe, our excited guests, and I left Roche Harbor this morning with a lot of sunlight...

Today Captain Jim and I crewed on the ol' Hawk with sun in the sky and wildlife on the brain. We had a boat full of excited passengers hoping to see (and photograph) killer whales. The only problem: We had no early reports. Always hoping for the best, we left the dock headed south through Mosquito Pass to the Haro Strait, the body of water that separates the West side of San Juan Island from the East side of Vancouver Island, BC (Canada).

As we got towards the open water...

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 was another perfect day here in Roche Harbor.  Blue skies and warm weather made for a pleasurable paddle around Henry Island.  During our lunch break we did some tidepooling to see the great diversity of life in the intertidal areas where we saw seastars, anemones, crabs, gobies, and all kinds of shellfish. On the water we saw lots of bald eagles, jellyfish, and seals.  A high point of the trip had to be a mother seal with her new pup coming within 10 yards of us...

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 Gabe and I had a wonderful day aboard the M/V Seahawk cruising down the west side of San Juan Island. The water was gorgeous and smooth, and it was one of our first warm days out on the water. I was happily wrapped in a fleece while cruising, but while sitting watching the whales the sun was just perfection! We spent plenty of time with some of the J16 matriline, including one of my favorite whales J26 Mike. J26 Mike is a full grown male killer whale, so he...