Yesterday, we saw a wide diversity of marine mammals. We cruised around the northern San Juan Islands and even went into the Gulf Islands of Canada for a quick bit. We saw a few Harbor Porpoise including a calf which was super tiny and super cute. We also saw several tons of Harbor Seals laying on the rocks around Flattop Island and swimming and twirling in the water. A young one pooped up and took a few minutes to check us out checking him out. We also saw all three species of the...

Today we had the rare opportunity to view four different family groups of transient killer whales. When we pulled away from the dock, reports of killer whales in the Strait of Juan de Fuca brought us south of San Juan Island. On our way down, we encountered all sorts of wildlife, including Steller sea lions, harbor seals, cormorants, harbor porpoises, and even a minke whale!

When we arrived at where the orcas were last reported, we noticed that the group consisted of nine different...

Today was a cloudy day here in the San Juans, The islands look they do for most of the year, not the bright sunny days, but the cool green and grey days where the clouds begin just where the trees end. Captain Mike and I headed north towards Flattop and Spieden Islands to check a pretty common place where marine mammals are found due to the currents that concentrate food in that area. We first spotted a Humpback Whale near Flattop Island. It was a young humpback that has been hanging...

You know what people love more than whales? Nothing except more whales and maybe perhaps the idea of autumn as they drown everything in brighter earth tones, sweaters, and pumpkin spice flavoring, but today wasn’t one of those days it was a whale of a day. Captain Mike, myself and Alex headed north to search for the Southern Resident Orcas. We first spotted them around East Point on Saturna Island. This place is one of my favorite in the islands, the current get a little bit crazy...

This week on San Juan Island, it's been warm. We don't usually get weather in the 80's out here! Of course, it didn't last for too long. The weather decided to change on us for our whale watch yesterday afternoon. It was breezy, chilly, and the temperature was hanging out right around the 60's, but that only makes the adventure more exciting! Our exposure suits were the perfect barrier between us and the wind, and we stayed dry and toasty warm from the moment we pulled out of Friday...

On Sunday, Captain Mike, myself, and Hannah set out on yet another sunny adventurous day in the Salish Sea. It was a wee bit windy down south, so we headed north to search within and on the northern edge of our little archipelago here. We skimmed past Orcas Island and Waldron Island two of our taller islands and definitely the ones with enormous coniferous trees hanging on desperately onto the rocky cliffs that rise from the dark blue waters. We approached the Patos Island lighthouse...

So Hot, well it’s hot for us. It got all the way up to 80F on land here today, but still pretty cool over the water as we headed towards the west side of San Juan Island again today. We made it to Eagle Cove and started to see those telltale blows over the water. We got closer and it was a very spread out group of K pod and J pod milling and catching fish off the western coast of San Juan Island. Soon though they finished fishing and started to group up a little bit off shore, and it...

Yesterday was probably one of the hottest of the summer here in the San Juan Islands. It got to around 80˚F on land, but once we were on the water it cooled down to a nice pleasant temperature. Today was one of those rare days as well that we did not really go that far. Friday Harbor is on the east side of San Juan Island and usually we make a few stops to see wildlife and eventually make our way to one of the larger straits to see the whales but today we went about a minute outside...

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...

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...