It's the magic of the San Juans - we know that every day is different out here cruising with San Juan Safaris. That's why we call it a safari - we never know what we're going to see, and it's always an adventure! M/V Kestrel cruised away from Friday Harbor with high hopes for a day full of exciting whale watching, and we were not disappointed. It was one of those days that took our breath away, each and every one of us in awe of how much diversity we are able to see out here in this...

Orcas – no secret – are amazing animals that constantly leave us in awe, with powerful cognitive abilities and massive brains that house extraordinary intelligence. Sometimes, we can’t help but feel an intense connection and sense of understanding with these amazing black and white mammals that swim through the waters of the Salish Sea. As highly social animals, they remain in very tight-knit family groups, learn constantly from each other, practice cooperative hunting and food...

Yesterday, the skies cleared to reveal a wonderfully blue sky with wispy, white clouds. The last few days we have been lucky here. This year has been marked as a historically low salmon year, and for this reason we have not seen the Resident Orcas (whose main food source is salmon) very much in the Salish Sea. This past week J pod of the Residents Orcas has been in and around the islands hunting for salmon. On Sunday, we headed south to arrive on the southern side of the islands to...

We left the dock today with reports of two killer whales just off of the west coast of San Juan Island. We headed north initially and rounded the top of the island before turning south into Haro Strait. We picked up some nice waves at that point, hopping over three-footers caused by the tide and the wind moving in opposite directions. After the equivalent of a splash mountain ride later, we arrived on scene to calming seas and two adult male transient killer whales riding the tide...

The beauty of the San Juan Islands and the Salish Sea really shone through today, with the sun beaming overhead, bald eagles soaring every which way you looked, and plenty of miraculous killer whales to get excited over. Today we watched some frisky transient orcas that were hanging out only a quick cruise north of Friday Harbor, a bit to the east of Spieden Island. It was absolutely incredible! We came upon two pods of transients that had just that morning come together and were...

Ever heard of a rorqual? Try saying that word ten times fast! Rorquals are the largest group of baleen whales, and even include the largest known mammal on Earth, the blue whale (those fellas can reach up to 200 tons - WOW). But what exactly is a baleen whale? There's some basic facts that can help you organize your thought process when you're comparing an odontocete (toothed whale) with a mysticete (baleen whale). Mysticetes have two blowholes. They're filter feeders. And they can...

What better way to start your weekend than with a confirmed sighting of orcas within the reach of a whale watch tour? Today we left the dock and headed north to the Canadian Gulf Islands to watch some transient killer whales that were reported swimming around that area.

We made a beeline for their last reported location, just off Saturna and the Pender Islands in British Columbia. We arrived on scene to a bunch of splashing, fins, and flukes – we were in the midst of watching...

This Wednesday we had started out north with a super group of people. Captain Pete, Hannah, and I started out by looking for Transient Orcas that had been spotted near Mandarte Island just across the border into Canada. We followed them over the border for a little two nation tour. We watched this one family of transients spend a great deal of time socializing with each other until they turned quickly towards shore. They quickly organized to entrap and take down a Harbor Seal! These...

I don’t know if y’all remember the ‘90’s but I sure do. The biggest thing and maybe one of the more unfortunate things that I do remember are, of course, frosted tips. You probably remember these and have a general idea about how they are engineered into hair. You may even no be experiencing a wave of nostalgia as an NSYNC song plays in your head. But what you probably don’t know is that some marine mammals are still really into the ‘90’s…

            We started off this Sunday trip...

I do not take top five lists lightly. If I say a trip is easily in my top five of all time, you can be certain that it is truly special. Today was one of those days.

Captain Mike and I had an amazing day with our guests up in the Strait of Georgia and Boundary Pass watching Bigg’s killer whales and a lovely humpback whale as well! We started the day of encounters with the T123s traveling east in the Strait of Georgia. This family, consisting of three individuals (Mom T123 and kiddos...