With early news of orca spottings, today’s tour headed north towards the U.S./Canadian international border.  Once we reached Turn Point we saw a few boats in the area and began our search. Within a quick ten minutes we had spotted two members of J-pod, our southern residents, and were able to follow them, watching them mill around and rise above the water's surface.

After about twenty minutes we moved on with our search and headed back southwest. It only took a couple hundred yards...

Something rare occurred today; killer whales surprised us by coming up not only next to our boat, but a couple swam under our boat! Let me start from the beginning… we left Friday Harbor heading south, stopping to see some harbor seals hauled up on rocky areas. We also went around whale rocks to see the steller sea lions that were hauled out, but not only were there some on the rocks, two giant individuals came out of the water, walking up the rocks at the same time!

We then headed...

Today was definitely one of the top five whale encounters I’ve had since I started at San Juan Safaris! We left Friday Harbor heading south with reports that there were whales on the west side. On the way we first stopped to view a large group of harbor seals that were hauled out on a rocky island. Then, as we traveled a little further south, a thick layer of fog descended. It created an eerie ambiance as it encompassed our boat. This however did not prevent us for encountering more...

The killer whales were close today so we had plenty of observation time and were able to see a smorgasbord of species.  We first encountered L pod and successfully identify the 34-year-old male Mega (L-41) who was traveling alongside the 22-year-old male Gaia (L-78).  What was really exciting was the amount of calves that were traveling and playing together.  There were at least three youngsters who were taking turns lob tailing, propoising, spy hopping and breaching next to each...