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...

Fourth of July on San Juan Island is like no other. Hundreds of people flee the city life to head to this little island to experience the parades, fireworks, picnics, fun runs, and various other festivities that are offered on the July 4th weekend. Both Roche Harbor and Friday Harbor have an impressive array of events for the entire family to enjoy. Some favorites? The log-rolling and donut eating contests are a favorite in Roche! Even if you choose not to participate in the powdered...

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...

It's been an absolute fabulous few weeks to watch our transient killer whales here in the Salish Sea. These marine mammal eaters are frequently seen hunting their favorite meal - harbor seals - along with harbor porpoises, minke whales, and dolphins around our islands. Males need to intake about 450 pounds of food a day to satisfy their appetities, while females need a bit less. These incredible hunters take down their prey in a cooperative manner and share their kills, and any...

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...

Did you know that our transient killer whales are also known as Bigg's killer whales? Dr. Michael Bigg was instrumental in pioneering killer whale identification research throughout the 1970's and 1980's, revealing the very distinct populations of orcas and also bringing to light the realization that the numbers of orcas in these popoulations were relatively low. Before Bigg, it was generally assumed that there were massive amounts of killer whales in the ocean and that they all ate...

Wow, did we cover a lot of water today! We had sunshine above and beautiful weather as we pulled out of Roche Harbor on our whale watch, but had some decisions to make regarding which direction to head today. We decided to seek out some whale activity that had been reported to the south of Orcas Island, so off we cruised. The ever-majestic bald eagles soared overhead, allowing us to see their massive 6-foot wingspan in all of its glory. Maybe they're getting excited for the Fourth of...

Yesterday we left the dock with reports of humpback whales just south of San Juan Island, a short jog from Friday Harbor. On our way there, we happened upon dozens of harbor seals just off of Cattle Point and paused to watch them fishing for the small fish being carried in by the quick flood.

We then carried on for a few more miles until we reached the location that the humpbacks had been spotted in last. Baleen whales especially love feeding in the waters between San Juan Island and...