friday harbor

We woke up this morning and it felt like summer! The sun was shining, the sky was that special shade of San Juan blue, and there were reports of whales! We headed north out of the harbor skirting the shore of San Juan Island. There were so many bald eagles out and about today, pretty much everywhere we looked we could find one! I think our end count today on eagles was right around 29 individuals!

We headed out into the northern portion of Haro Strait to a pair of...

Cruising in the San Juan Islands is a treat any time of the year, but it is those special clear sunny days in the spring and fall that make my heart sing. Yesterday we enjoyed a gorgeous early spring day viewing numerous bald eagles, harbor seals, porpoises, and Steller’s sea lions. We also had the chance to view some new baby mouflon sheep on the slopes of Spieden Island. Take a look below!

Harbor seals on a rock in the San Juan Islands

First mouflon lambs of the...

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...

There is a lot of mystery surrounding new baby orca J50, but one thing is now clear.  It's a girl!  The telling photograph was snapped and everyone could not be happier with the results.  A healthy population needs females in order to continue matrilines and produce more offspring.  Currently the Southern Resident Killer Whale population has more breeding age males than females, which does not bode well for future offspring.  We can only hope that little J50...

Had a great tour yesterday with a family willing the brave the cool and damp weather. We ran a circuit in North Haro Strait around Kelp Reef, Henry Island, Stuart Island, and Speiden Island. We were hoping to encounter a group of Transient Killer Whales (marine mammal eating) that have been sighted frequently in the area. Weather conditions made visibility greater than a mile difficult. We did not see any whales, but did find large groups of Harbor Porpoise in Speiden...

Our Southern Residents continue to be seen in the northern part of Puget Sound (Port Townsend, South Whidbey Island). Both J-pod and K-pod have been spotted between the 16th and 18th (when the new calf was first reported in J-pod).

There have also been lots of Transient (marine mammal diet) Killer Whales in the San Juan and Gulf Islands. On December 21st, several Transients were spotted off the west side of San Juan Island, and later in the Kelp Reef area.

Killer Whale sightings continue to occur in the San Juan Islands and outlying areas. After having gone without sightings for a few days, J-pod (and L-87) were once again spotted in Admiralty inlet. If their pattern holds, Whidbey Island and Seattle residents may be treated to whale sightings along public beaches and parks. Keep your eyes open as you travel to and from home today along the water.

Very exciting news reported by Orca Network. L-pod was recently spotted off Monterey Bay (February 10th), and then spotted later off San Francisco. Local San Juan Island researchers were present to get a positive identification. For those who are not familiar, this region is now considered part of L-pod's normal winter range, and the river systems and coastline play a critical role in their winter habitat. More information can be found at Orca Network for those who...

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...