j pod

Calf surfaces just behind mother. This is often called eschelon swimming, when the baby is just being pulled in adults slip stream.

Aboard the M/V Sea Hawk, guests were excited about reports of transient killer whales off of the shore of county park. However, as we departed Roche Harbor and out of mosquito pass, guests were treated with a surprise! We ran into granny the 105 year old killer whale female and a member of J-Pod! With Oynx shortly behind her, a member of L...

The only way I have come to describe days like yesterday is “San Juan Special.” Those days that I am trying to explain the area to guests and the only thing I feel like I can say, “Do you see how beautiful this is?!”

You could have water skied on the mighty Haro Strait yesterday, and it was difficult to tell where the water ended and the sky began at the horizon. The whole strait felt still and it was a magical day to encounter some wildlife.

The M/V Seahawk left the...

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...

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...

This Tuesday, May 3^rd we set out again on another warm, sunny day. Today it was Captain Brian and I heading north with a great crew of folks form all over world here for various conferences in Seattle. Since it was a little bit hotter today everything was spending as much time in the water as possible. The Harbor Seals would poke their heads up to stare at us, and the Steller’s Sea Lions were rafting up together, doing spins, an loudly snorting their exhales up and out of...

Yesterday we had yet another amazing day of encounters with some of the magnificent cetaceans that call the Salish Sea home. Captain Mike and I headed out on a bit of a grey afternoon in search of adventure and whales, of course. We had a lovely group of guests on board, and even a few birthdays!

We steered the mighty M/V Sea Lion north towards the Canadian Gulf Islands where we found J Pod, part of our Southern Resident Killer Whale population, traveling south through...

[caption id="attachment_1339" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Mike J26 and sibling near Gooch Island"]

The San Juan Islands are the most well known for being the home of the Southern Resident Killer Whales. The famous J, K, and L pods make up the Southern Residents, and are so famous that some of them ended up in some film sequences for movies such as Free Willy, pretty cool, huh? In spite of their ecotype name though, these ‘residents’ only like...

We were again treated to orcas close to San Juan Island. On the warmest day of the year so far and some of the best sunshine we’ve had in a while, we were definitely ready for another foray into the waters of the Salish Sea.

Again we had no reported whales in the area, but as we have seen in the past few days that does not mean that there are no whales around. We changed things up a bit and headed south, enjoying the scenery of the shorelines of both San Juan Island and...

Yesterday did not seem as though its was going have such a magical outcome. We left the dock with no good report of orcas. Then, thirty minutes off the dock, Captain Mike pulled me into the wheelhouse to pass along the news: Orcas, and lots of them! I hurriedly passed the news along to guests as we cruised under sunny San Juan skies watching gulls and harbor porpoise flit past.

We continued North around East Point on Saturna Island in British Columbia and stopped to...

I don’t know about you, but I love babies, and most of all I love orca babies! Especially when they spyhop and fluke and are extra chubby. First though I got to back up. This Saturday, the M/V Sea Lion received reports of killer whales off the west side of San Juan Island, heading north through Haro Strait. We set off with Capt. Mike, Naturalist Sarah, and myself to go find these big, black and white animals on another spectacularly beautiful, sunny, spring day.

As we...