Today myself, Brendan and Captain Pete got out on the Sea Lion to a beautiful day, hopeful whale reports, and a boat full of excited passengers. Word of the day was West side, so we went South out of Friday Harbor through the San Juan Channel. On our way down we began to see lots of wildlife feeding on a herring baitball.

Baitballs are great signs in the Salish Sea that indicate a healthy bottom layer of our rich food web. While feeding, small fish including herring and sandlance...

There's a few things you should know about orcas. First: they're fast. They can get up to 30 knots on a good day. And you're all, "But that's not that fast, Erick" and then I'm all, "Well, imagine 8 tons of pure speed and salmon eating muscle traveling through heavy currents traveling at 35 mph (56kph for the rest of the world)" and now I'll give you time to be impressed... Orcas are one of the fastest marine mammals alive and in groups they can travel around 100 miles (161 km) in a...

It was a drizzly morning here in Friday Harbor, but we definitely needed that rain and by the time the afternoon rolled around the sun was peaking out again. Capt. Jim, 9 guests, and I all left the harbor on the Kittiwake with reports of Southern Resident Killer Whales heading south along the southern tip of San Juan Island. Never ever has there been a calmer day that I can remember on the Salish Sea especially when we got onto the west side - smooth as glass. On the way to meet up...

We often tell guests that Killer Whales can travel 100 miles in a day, a point of reference for the potential for viewing them in this immense archipelago. As we left Friday Harbor we were witness to how far a group can travel. The morning reports had the J2 Matriline somewhere on the South end of San Juan Island but we were headed for the East entrance to Active Pass, about 50 miles away from where they'd started.

Personally heading up through the similar, but just slightly...

Today was (as usual) a fantastic day! My co-natty Erik, captain Mike and myself had a boat full of excited passengers, sunny skies and great whale reports ahead of us. We left the dock and headed south out of Friday Harbor towards Cattle Point. On our way through San Juan Channel we stopped to check out some cormorants and some harbor seals enjoying the sunshine on some rocks. Its currently pupping season for harbor seals! We saw a few little ones learning "banana pose" from the...

For the past few days, we've been meeting up with the residents on the west side of SJI, so today, when we had a report for Boundary Pass, we were excited to be able to switch things up. So, we left Friday Harbor and headed North. We met up with the K13s just between Saturna and South Pender Island. They were fairly spread out, but we got a good look at all 7 pod members and a good amount of breaches! We were lucky enough to hang out with them from there, all the way past Turn point...

We left on the M/V Sea Lion for one of our spectacular sunset tours. Earlier that day we had seen a mixture of J and K pod heading north on the west side of San Juan Island. So, we headed north to see if we could meet up with them on the north side of the island. We first met up with a large group of J and K pod traveling really close to each other close to shore along Henry Island. We got some great looks as they calmly cruised northward. We soon broke off of this group and went to...

This trip was one of the best whale watches of my life. We motored off to the southwest side of San Juan Island, where we met up with the Southern residents, (and a minke whale!) At first, we could just see one or two whales here and there, surfacing sporadically. In time, however, they began to surface more often, and more predictably, more seemed to appear, and before we knew it, we were watching a greeting ceremony. Whales joined up to form larger and larger pods, and then each...

Today was amazing. We left Friday Harbor (both at 1:30 and 5:30) with confirmed whale reports for the west side of the island. We made our way and soon enough were among dozens of Southern resident killer whales. This included the K13s, the J19s, and many other matrilines. Although they were fairly spread out at times, we are confident that they were traveling together because orcas can communicate from a few miles away from each other. Nonetheless, if I didn't know any better, I...

First of all Happy Canada Day Everyone! Woo and what a Canada Day it has been. Capt. Mike, Brendan, and I left Friday Harbor with a super fun group and a very sunny day. There were some reports of Killer Whales a little south of Discovery Island, which is just off the southern tip of Vancouver Island. So despite what people tell you it the temperature doesn't immediately drop ten degrees when we cross into Canadian waters, but I so try to start saying units in  metric though. We soon...