I cannot even put into words how amazing, awesome, exhilarating, and fun this afternoon’s trip was. Seriously, words cannot describe the whales, but I’ll do my best share this experience. We left Friday Harbor heading east with reports of whales in Rosario Strait. This is the first thing that made today special; typically we travel north or south of San Juan Island, not east between the islands which is absolutely beautiful on a clear, sunny day like today.

We reached the whales...

We traveled all the way to Victoria BC to see three different pods of Southern Resident Killer Whales. When multiple pods of whales come together it is called a super pod! 

Members of the J- and K-pods were traveling together, moving through Enterprise Channel between Victoria and Trial Island (48 24.46N, 12318.64W), with individuals from L-pod roughly 1 mile offshore.  The whales were traveling in an easterly direction. 

We were all captivated by the whales.  At times over 20...

Today we headed out in full force with both boats, the Sea Lion and Kittiwake. We heard a few rumors of Big Black Fish milling around Lime Kiln so we headed in that direction. As we passed South Beach we saw our first group of dorsal fins break the water surface ( Haro Strait, 48°26.27N 123°01.48W).

Big “Mike” (J26) somehow made his way into a group of female K’s including “Raggedy” (K40) and seemed to be looking for a hot a date! He was definitely showing off what he’s got...

Members of J-pod, K-pod, and L-Pod where traveling together again today out in Rosario Strait just southwest of Lopez Island; coordinates 48°24.051N 122°50.23W. Within a few minutes of reaching the area, the Sea Lion (our boat) was surrounded by whales on all sides! It didn’t matter in which direction we looked everyone was bound to see the whales surface. And man did it seem like they were in their realm!! We saw almost every behavior possible; from spyhopping to lobtailling to...

California Sea Lion

A Warm Spring Day of Whale & Wildlife Watching from Friday Harbor, San Juan Island

Today we took off with reports of our resident orcas coming north on the west side of San Juan Island.

We headed out of Friday Harbor going north making a stop at NWR Yellow Island, and rock outcroppings with 43+ snoozing Harbor Seals.   We made our way along the coast of Speiden Island. Often times this is a great place to spot Bald Eagles – no Eagle this time.  But we did...

     Yesterday Transients Orcas, today Residents Orcas! Traveling all the way to Mouat Point off North Pender Island, Canada, we caught up with members of J and K pod. Although the Orcas kept us on the move, we paused long enough to see foraging, plenty of tail-slapping, a slow-motion spy-hop by Sekiu (K-22), and an excellent full-body breach! It was also a treat to clearly hear vocalizations on our hydrophone.

     A stop at Green Point on Speiden Island on the way home gave us a...

Headed south down the east side of San Juan Island.A single mature bald eagle was spotted up in a tree. We paused to view it, then off it went. We went a bit further south, then stopped a rock outcrop with TONS of Stellars Sea Lions. Lounging, posturing, snoozing, swimming. They where piled up with scads of  cormorants and a variety of gulls. You could smell that these animals were all fish eaters. (Hey, watch it, I kinda like that fragrance!) The boat sat with the engine off and...

The last two days could have gone either way.  The morning whale reports had residents near Hein Bank, possibly heading out to the Pacific.  But like yesterday, the animals turned around and made their way back towards San Juan Island.  We found some members of K pod swimming steadily in Haro Strait as the clouds finally cleared.  We hung out with a few different groups of 4-5 whales, but could see animals spread out in every direction!

On the way home we stopped near Whale Rocks and...

We only have a few more trips left in our season up here, but the whales don't know that.  Today we found members of our resident pods K and L, almost 50 whales, spread out in Haro Strait heading up to Turn Point.  We were able to identify K20 (possibly with a new calf?  yet to be confirmed), L87, L41, L88, and  K40.  We got to see a wide range of behaviors and all our passengers were very excited.

On the way home we stopped along Spieden and saw many harbor seals on the rocks, as...

After 2 days of howling wind and sporadic downpours it seemed as though mother nature deicded to give us a break.  It was a beautiful day.  There was sun and there were whales.  We even saw a Minke  surface as we were watching Steller's Sea Lions at the south end of Cattle Pass.

When we got to the residents the whales were spread out on the south/ west side of the island.  They looked to be moving a little bit offshore but were generally milling when we arrived.  The first whale we...