Softly we sat and watched the whales about 700 yards away from us. At first we could only see white wake, their bodies like boats zooming through the water. As we waited, their dorsal fins began to loom in the distance. We followed them as they swam parallel to us west along the south side of Stuart Island, reuniting with their pod at Turn Point Light House.  It was a slow but satiating afternoon as we watched the orcas loll about the land, hugging the shore. Bright, sunny, peaceful...

Ok, not really, but wouldn't that be cool.  We did spend time with the orcas though and had a lovely afternoon on the west side of San Juan Island.  There was Ruffles, our big old male, some of his other J pod mates and lots of swimming going on.  Not every encounter with the orcas is a circus of breaches and spyhops, but any day that we spend with them is a good one and good days is what we are all about.

Even days without orcas are good days, because there is always something...

Marine Biologist John Calambokidis showed a series of slides and some video and one listed what they found including "50 gallons of undigested contents, mostly algae but 3.2 lbs were "human debris, including plastic bag material, fabrics (including a leg of sweatpants), fishing line, golf ball, duct tape and a juice pouch.

15 oz of the total debris were plastic bag pieces alone." He said this indicated that the whale had clearly been feeding in the waters in and near Puget...

All of Dawn's photos from the Whale Watching & Wildlife Tour June 10, 2010 have been entered into our photo contest.

It was an awesome day in the San Juan Islands today and we had a superb trip.  The orcas disappeared into the oceanic netherworld some time in the night, so we went off in search of bigger and better intrigues.  After motoring down San Juan Channel, around Goose and Long Islands and Whale Rocks, Capt. Mike took Casey, the guests and me on a whirlwind tour around San Juan Island.  We saw porpoises, eagles and sea birds.  There were beautiful islands, homes and waterways for us to...

Captain Craig and I left Friday Harbor with a group of enthusiastic guests to explore the wonder the islands have to offer. Having only heard news of whales heading west past Trial Island (near Victoria) -which is too far for us to reach, especially in a rolly-polly Haro Strait - we headed north to see what we could find.

Today was an eagle-packed day. We saw mating pairs left and right, first at O'Neil Island, then on one of the Cactus Islands. We also saw eagles flying past islands...

It must be since Capt. Hook just arrived!  That is right, we spent the day with good old Capt. Hook and, in this story, his jolly gals.  And we did not have to go more than twenty minutes down San Juan Channel before we met up with them.  Transient orcas T40, or Capt. Hook as he is affectionately known, and two females were traveling north up through Griffin Bay on the east side of San Juan Island today.  It was a quick trip from the dock for us and the rest of the whale watch fleet...

Okay, well it was actually all of us on the M/V Sea Lion that were doing the rocking and rolling, but I am sure that the orcas were having some fun too.  Especially if all of the breaches by the calf were any indication of their state of mind.  The waters were rough, (unusual for the San Juan Islands), but our guests were tougher and we prevailed in the end.  The orcas were spread all along the south end of San Juan Island in little clusters that were hard to find until we stumbled...

Working as a Naturalist, I have become accustomed to going with the flow (pardon the nautical idiom.) This is often an acquired skill for people, as wildlife has a way of constantly thwarting our wishes to watch them in their natural setting. With a world now filled with zoos, aquariums, and Sea Worlds expectations are often high to have wildlife cooperate with our desires, even ones outside these man-made settings. The orcas have started coming back into this area very frequently -...

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