Oh, I do love a good family get together. Orcas, being the incredibly social animals that they are, are often seen hanging out with their families, traveling throughout the Salish Sea and frequently foraging for salmon. But what's life without a little fun? You can't just spend your whole day searching for fish! These animals certainly need their play time, especially the families with young calves. Just like any baby mammal, calves seem to be full of endless energy, freuqently seen...

Today was another super day in the San Juan Islands. We had perfect summer weather of flat calm water and baby blue skies, and for the third day in a row the Southern Residents were here! They haven’t been around that much since their main food source, Chinook Salmon has been very low this year, but we encountered them around Turn Point on Stuart Island! It was all of J pod together! The J16’s passed and the J2’s passed and we saw some of the males, Onyx and Blackberry swim past as...

Hello, It’s me... again, and yes I’m sorry but not sorry I’m going to talk about salmon and their connection to Southern Resident Orcas again. Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKW) eat fish and 80% of their diet is one species of fish: Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), and yes before you ask they definitely tell the difference. It’s probably not because of their refined palate, but perhaps, it’s more likely due to their incredible echolocation abilities to determine between...

Isn't it fascinating how tied to their families orcas are? By mom's side for life...I'm sure some human moms wish this were the case for their own children. As part of a matriarchal social structure, newborn calves will stick close to Mom and nurse for their first year of life, eventually becoming weaned. But, unlike, say, a humpback whale, these calves don't go off on their own after a year or two. They're going to stay with mom for life. She's the leader of the pod, and the...

Yesterday was amazing! The past few days the residents have come back into the Salish Sea and have been traveling up an down the islands foraging for salmon, and we hope they find plenty of them! A great place to find the Southern Residents in the islands is on the west side of San Juan Island which is part of the Haro Strait. The salmon migrate from the Pacific Ocean through the Strait of Juan de Fuca and start to head north, most of them are heading towards the largest river around...

Orcas, Killer Whales, Blackfish, Sea Pandas – the species scientifically labeled Orcinus orca is known by many names, and they are probably one of the most distinctive looking mammals in the sea. Although these large, intelligent, black and white dolphins look a lot different than you or me, you’d be surprised how similar we and they are… but first let’s talk about an awesome day.

            It was one of the sunniest and clearest days that I’ve seen this spring as we left...

Last night we were greeted with a happy confirmation from the Center from Whale Research, that our core staff here at San Juan Safaris had been hoping for since a staff jaunt out to San Juan Channel on December 1st.... A NEW CALF FOR J28 POLARIS!!

On December 1, with a report of whales right outside of the harbor, we quickly left the office and our post-season projects, jumped into the car, made our way down to the M/V Sea Lion, cut the lines, and were off! A group of J Pod whales...

Today was one of the best trips I had all season. Captain Brian, Naturalist Mike and I set out from the dock without a single report determined to find some wildlife we set out North towards Spieden Island. When we reached the Wasp Islands just west of Orcas and Shaw Islands we received a report of a large group of orcas moving south through Rosario Strait on the other side of Orcas Island, so of course we had to go check it out. Though there was a bit of wind and some significant...

Today Captain Brian and I left the dock under perfectly Pacific Northwest cloudy skies with a boat full of passengers who, as usual, were excited to see the wildlife of the Salish Sea.

Captain Brian and I were particularly excited as well because we had heard reports of something that has been lacking in this area for over a week now: Southern Resident Killer Wlhales! The fish-eaters were spotted heading back into the San Juan Islands after spending some time in Northern British...

Our legendary 2015 late season whale watching continues to impress, with this weekends sightings including resident killer whales, humpback whales, as well as transient killer whales.

On Friday the Sea Lion went out on a high seas adventure, looking to find some of our Southern Resident killer whales just to the south end of the San Juan. We marveled at some members of L Pod including L72 Racer and her son L105 Fluke as they surfed in the waves around our vessel. We also enjoyed...