M/V Kittiwake, guest, Captain Jim, and myself departed Friday Harbor and headed north. Our guests got a great view of the Cactus Islands, Johns Island, and Stuart Island. We caught up with part of J-pod just off of turn point, which marks the most north western point in the U.S. Our guests got great views of the cookie clan, which includes J22-Oreo, J32-Rhapsody, J-34 Doublestuff, J-38 Cookie. This family group was also traveling with another two family groups and our guests were...

Heading north out of Friday Harbor, Captain Craig, Andrew, our eager guests, and I crossed the Canadian boundary line in search of the elusive K Pod. Up until two days ago, K Pod had yet to show their beautiful black and white faces in our region. Once across the boundary line, we met up with a few K Pod members interspersed with J Pod members. It was great to see K Pod out and about!

After we left the group of  J and K Pod, we decided to try our luck a little bit south where we...

Today, Captain Mike, a few quests, and myself headed up northeast towards Lummi Island where we intercepted J Pod steadily moving east. Like Andrew mentioned in yesterdays blog, the community has been anxiously awaiting the return of our residents pods and were overjoyed to hear of a superpod traversing through our area. The resident pods seemed to have split up by the time our afternoon and sunset trip rolled around.

However, that didn't stop us from seeing whales today! Earlier in...

The endangered population of Southern Resident Killer Whales that frequent the salmon-rich waters of the Salish Sea form “superpod” only a handful of times during the summer season. Three extended families (known as J, K, and L pod) join together and travel as one unit, making up only 82 remaining members. Superpod is characterized by a great deal of social behavior, including breaching, mating, and vocalizing. At this point in the season, we would expect to have seen all three...

What an amazing trip we had today! The wind was minimal, the water was like glass, and the guests were fabulous. The wildlife was simply “steller” as well. In fact, we actually saw a male and female Steller Sea Lion on Whale Rocks at the south end of San Juan Island right off of Cattle Pass! Steller Sea Lions aren’t seen as frequently as our Harbor Seals and can weigh up to two ton! Aimee and I were quite pleased with the sighting.

After watching the Sea Lion, Captain Mike wanted to...

Two great trips on the M/V Kittiwake today. We had both an afternoon and a chartered sunset trip. The swell had calmed down from previous days, leaving us with calm, glassy water on our trips. Both groups got great views of Spirit, L-22, and her two sons, Solstice, L-89, and Skana, L-79. This family of 3 have been moving along the west side of San Juan Island throughout the day, continuously searching for that tasty Chinook Salmon that they love ohhhh so much. And it sure looked like...

With summer in full swing and full boats, Captain Jim and myself departed on M/V Kittiwake. We had reports of the L12 family group on the west side of San Juan Island just near False Bay. We arrived on scene and got an excellent viewing of Spirit and her two sons, Skana and Solstice. Spirit then continued to breach for us at least five times. Most people asked if there is a reason to why these whales breach. My answer is usually no, they are just playing or showing off for us...

Happy Forth of July everyone! It has been a fantastic day so far! We left our Friday Harbor location and headed out to the west side of the island near False Bay where we met some of our L-Pod members. Spirit, Skanna, and Solstice were there feeding on the Chinook Salmon that are slowly retuning back to the Salish Sea. Our Southern Resident Orcas will stay with their mother and family group their whole life; this means that our Orcas here have matriarchal societies. Spirit is Skanna...

4th of July is right around the corner and the whales are here to help celebrate! Captain Craig, Andrew, and myself had two great trips today. We started the day off right with brilliant blue skies and not a cloud in sight. Our afternoon trip had a boat full of eager passengers ready to spot some resident orcas. With binoculars at the ready, we cruised along the west side of San Juan Island till we encountered a subgroup of L Pod. The group we watched for the remainder of our...

With not a cloud in the sky today, Captain Mike, Naturalist Heather and myself departed Friday Harbor with our guests and headed south, to where Haro Strait and the Strait of Juan De Fuca meet, to check out a Minke whale. This Minke whale was very interesting to watch. I say interesting because usually Minke whales are very scattered and don't surface in the same area. This Minke looked as though it was traveling in the same direction and kept going that one way. Most guests got...