Today was a great day; sunny and calm with a strong flood current pushing us north. With no reports of Orcas we headed north to East Point on Saturna Island to seek out Harbor Seals and Steller Sea Lions. When we flew passed three magnificent Steller Sea Lions swimming in the water, without any time for our passengers to take a look, I went into the wheelhouse to check in with the captain. Transient Orcas had been found even further north off of Mayne Island in the Strait of Georgia...

Today was a day you could not beat here in the San Juan Islands.  The sky was clear, the weather warm (for the Pacific Northwest) and the water was calm.  No one could seem to find orcas (remember, the world's largest dolphin) or whales today, but we had a lovely cruise around the San Juan and the Canadian Gulf Islands.  There were harbor seals, Steller's sea lions and harbor porpoises stretched to the horizon.  At boiling reef, which was rather odoriferous today, there were dozens...

Capt. Mike and I saved the day aboard the M/V Sea Lion today.  There have been no orca sightings for several days despite all of the companies being out and scouring the watery countryside.  We were taking our place amongst them and heading out on a northwest wildlife tour when out of the blue, literally, popped an orca fin!  What, an orca fin?!  Yes, an orca fin!!  I, maintaining professionalism and decorum at all times, proceeded to run around the boat yelling and effusing.  San...

Well, we did not find orcas, but we did find plenty of other cool creatures.  On a boat built for 50, we had 7 people, so it was like having a private tour.  The guests and captains and I were relaxed and open to any new experiences that might come our way.

In that light we decided to head farther northwest than we usually do when going on a wildlife tour.  We traveled up President's Channel and around Patos Island, a state marine park.  I got to tell everyone about the historic...

Can you believe it?  Winter is gone and we are back on the water again!

Hello all, it is me, your intrepid marine naturalist here to guide you, teach you, entertain you and celebrate with you all things orca and wildlife. It was a wet but mild winter and now we have graduated to a cool blustery spring. The skies are happy, the plants and wildlife are happy and we salty dogs are happy to be back at what we love. Traveling the waterways of the San Juan Islands.

Today we took our...

After what appeared to be the start of fall and winter, we are now back to the September weather that we are all so fond of. September really is the best month to see the islands and today was a perfect example of that.

I welcomed a lovely group of guests onto the M/V Kittiwake this afternoon and we headed off on our tour. The orcas were at the south end and west side of San Juan Island today, so it was difficult to decide where to go. Capt. Bill did a fabulous job though, and after...

Some days are just not like the others and sometimes the orcas do things that we just can not predict. Yesterday, members of K and L pods swam up San Juan Channel between San Juan and Lopez Islands. That was only the second time this season that they have done that, and we were there to see it. They made it all the way to Friday Harbor before they turned around and headed back south. It was a lovely, mostly clear day and with the orcas traveling in two large, close groups it was...

Well, I can't tell you what a treat it is to be headed off on a wildlife trip with no hope of seeing orcas and then you get "The Call". For the past two days we have motored up San Juan Channel, swung north around Flattop Island and then been alerted of another boat finding orcas. Yesterday it was transients in Canada, today it was residents at the south end of the island. Both days, we had already informed our guests of the bad news of no orcas, but of our intention to visit the...

"To everything, turn, turn, turn...", so they say and that is true of life here in the San Juan Islands. The indicators are small currently, but the times they are a changing. I saw a second Steller's sea lion in a week today, which means they are starting to wander back down here from Alaska. This one was probably another sub-adult male that was not that impressive to the females, so he is back in our waters to work on his physique so that he has more success next year.

These large...

It was inevitable, but sad all of the same. Tonight was our last evening trip. We did not waste it though and we had a lovely group of guests out with us on the M/V Sea Lion. Even though there were no resident orcas tonight we still saw all kinds of wonderful wildlife.

As Capt. Pete toured us through the islands, we stopped time and again for harbor seals hauled out on rocks. Of course, there is always a method to Capt. Pete's madness and he was stopping at all of the places...