We boarded the Sea Lion today with no orca reports and prepared ourselves to go in search of other wildlife in the area. Just as we were about to depart from the dock, Captain Pete was informed that there were some transient orcas just outside the harbor! So, we made our way out to San Juan Channel and sure enough, there they were.

The Pacific Northwest is an incredibly unique area. One of the reasons I say that, is that we regularly have the opportunity to see TWO different ecotypes...

After shooting to the North last Saturday night, J Pod had disappeared. The whale watching fleet had gotten no reports and all of the hydrophones in the Salish Sea had been silent to the melodious calls of the Js.... UNTIL THIS MORNING! We got to the M/V Sea Lion and had a flurry of reports of all 28 members of J Pod traveling south down the West Side of San Juan Island. And were they ever! It was like watching whale popcorn out on the water today, everywhere you looked there was a...

We had more great news yesterday when NOAA reported a new member of L Pod!  NOAA, who has been conducting research on the Southern Resident Orcas located L Pod off of Westport WA.  Westport is located on the Pacific Coast near the Columbia River.  L94 appears to be the mother to young L121.  This is the second calf for L94, Calypso, who had L113 in 2009.  L119, born in 2012, is the last calf that has survived in L Pod.  In the fall of 2014 L120, born to L86, only survived the first...

Late last week another baby orca was spotted in the Salish Sea and confirmed by the Center for Whale Research.  The newest member belongs to J Pod and is designated J51.  The calf of 36 year old J19 seemed to be happy and healthy as it swam alongside its mother.  It is estimated that the calf is about a week and a half old.  J50, born at the end of 2014, was also spotted looking healthy and energetic.  J50 has even been confirmed a female, which is great news for J Pod.  The first...

Across all the worlds oceans there are at least 10 ecotypes of orcas, and possibly even more.  An ecotype is a distinct population of animals separated by diets, region, or social factors from the whole species.  Currently there is only one Orcinus Orca, but some argue that is it time to give separate species names to some of these ecotypes.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, we have what are known as resident orcas.   Resident orcas diverged genetically about 13,000 years ago.  This...

Well, it's official!  A new calf has been confirmed in the Southern Resident Killer Whales, bringing their numbers to 78 animals.  It is believed that J16 gave birth to the new calf just a few days ago as the calf was first spotted near San Juan Island today.  42 year old J16, or Slick, is a seasoned mother, having already raised 5 other calves.  We hope that with her knowledge the newest member of J Pod survives the first crucial year of life.  The sex of the baby orca will take...

Captain Mike, Owner/Naturalist Brian, guests, and I left Friday Harbor headed north in the hopes of finding whales.  Even though we started the morning with no reports, we remained hopeful as we motored along Orcas Island.  And then puff it's a humpback and her calf!  Guests aboard the M/V Sea Lion were lucky enough to be the ones to spot the pair of humpback whales!  Over the past few years, we have been encountering more and more humpbacks, and we hope this marks the start of their...

Yet another beautiful late summer day with the Southern Residents! We had a spectacular afternoon full of breaching, tail lobbing and porpoising.... generally very happy orcas! Today we enjoyed the company of a couple of different L-pod families. We spent the most time with the L54s (L54 "Ino" and her calves L108 "Coho" & L117 "Keta") who were joined by some of my favorite males: L92 "Crewser", L88 "Wave Walker", and L84 "Nyssa". Wave Walker and Nyssa are the last remaining members...

We had a wonderful day on the water with some very goofy southern resident killer whales! We saw a mixture of J and K pods playing, rolling and breaching in Haro Strait. We saw a number of spyhops today as well. Killer whales have excellent eyesight, very much like our own, but they can only see about three feet above the water when they are under. In order to survey their surroundings they will spyhop, sticking their heads out of the water. We had a wonderful time enjoying the...

Today Captain Pete, Tyler and I headed out for a blustery day on Haro Strait. We headed North around San Juan Island and met up with a beautiful group of transient killer whales in the middle of the strait right on the US/Canadian border. Transients eat marine mammals (basically anything that we think is cute and cuddly) with harbor seals making up about 60% of their diet. Today we were fortunate enough to see the T37s and the T137As. We can identify individuals whales by looking at...