Right out the gates, we headed south and just before Cattle Pass we encountered a harbor seal munching on a salmon it had just caught!  At first, two gulls were interested in the seal's catch but each time it surfaced, another gull and then another and then another came on until there were ten gulls fighting for a piece of the salmon prize.  Wait a minute, did the gulls even do any of the dirty work to catch that salmon?!  Oh, scavengers.

Around the west side of San Juan Island, we...

We started seeing the dorsal fins of K pod after exiting the Speiden Channel and spotted Deadhead (K-27) with her new son (K-44). The boy is her first offspring and he will remain unnamed until after he has survived a winter and is officially considered part of the pod. Researchers do this because of the alarming fact that only around half of the calves survive the first year of life. The first-born calf has an even lower survival rate which is believed to be partially due to the...

Herb has been out with San Juan Safaris for years now and on so many trips that he is an "honorary staffer". Along with knowing a lot about whales, and I am talking Hawaii to Massacusetts, he has a great eye. He has been very generous this year and in the past sharing all his photos. Here are just a few of the many taken in the past 3 days.

Spy Hop by Herb Hartman

Marine Naturalist Serena by Herb Hartman

Kittiwake aka the adult boat 12 guests, 12 years and older by Herb Hartman

Another beautiful day as we motored south down the San Juan Channel toward Cattle Pass.  It was slightly overcast but we could see Mt Baker standing tall to our east.  We stopped to look at a juvenile bald eagle sitting atop a rock otherwise covered with seals and had an "awwww" moment when a tiny seal pup surfaced behind his mom, looked at us with his big, brown eyes and then did a crazy little half breach dive.

We rounded Cattle Point and cruised west, toward False Bay.  In the...

We took a long trip north today with reports that there were killer whales hanging around Saturna in Canadian waters. The ride out was beautiful. The sun was shining, there was a clear view of Mt. Baker, and the waters were calm and glassy. What’s even better is that the trip up was totally worth it; J-pod was in the area. We were able to identify Riptide and Slick amongst the individuals we encountered.

After what seemed like no time at all we were on our way back to Friday Harbor...

J pod was spread out along the southwest coast in smaller groups. The flag of American Camp waved on in the background as we encountered the first group of three orcas. It consisted of the mature male Mike (J-26) whose sea snake was present and the flashing of pink startled and confused the passengers. As we headed further north we saw a formation of four with whom we believed to have Granny (J-2) and Riptide (J-30) leading. The juveniles we passed along the way were continuously lob...

On this beautiful, sunny Thursday afternoon we headed south out of Friday Harbor with news that the killers were hanging around the west side of San Juan Island. The passengers spirits were high as we headed out with the prospect of seeing all sorts of wildlife. As we made our journey west we stopped to watch some harbor seals hauled out on rocky areas soaking up some sun. Just before we reached Lime Kiln we saw what we were looking for, the killer whales were up ahead. It was J pod...

Any time you're thinking about getting on a boat, check the sky and then cross your fingers.  Today we had intermittent sunshine over Friday Harbor and dark gray low-hanging clouds to the south.  And to the south we went... with fingers crossed that the clouds would continue out to sea and away from our projected travels.

Just before leaving the protection of the islands, we saw a handful of harbor seals hauled out on the rocks exchanging 48 degree Celsius water for slightly warmer...

The M/V Sea lion departed Friday Harbor with reports of Transient Orcas coming from Thatcher Pass.  We motored past Yellow Island and stopped to check out some harbor seals hauled out on the rocks.  After that we headed towards Green Point on Spieden Island and noticed some blows on the north side of the island.  They turned out to be the Transients we had been looking for.  Accordingly to some other boats in the area they had just made a kill, but it was hard for us to tell if they...

We headed north out of Friday Harbor with reports that there were some orcas coming down the Strait of Georgia towards Saturna Island. On our way to start our search in Canadian waters we were lucky enough to encounter lots of harbor seals hauled out on the rocks at Yellow Island and some more at White Rocks.

From there we headed across the border at Boundary Pass and had everyone on board helping us look for signs of orca. Once we passed the Canadian Navy and a large cargo ship we...