As we left San Juan Island yesterday, everyone couldn’t help but comment on what a phenomenal day it was.  Sunny skies, no wind, and flat calm glassy waters- oh, and the 40 or so killer whales that were in the area helped a little too! As Captain Mike, Chelsea and I motored out into the San Juan Channel, we made our way up to the north end of the Island where we met up with J and L Pod. For those of you who are just tuning in, J and L Pod are made up of Southern Resident Orcas, a...

Well you can probably guess it, but it was another beautiful day on the water! Today, Captain Pete and myself, were accompanied by a small group of passengers who were eagerly awaiting to get out on the water and find some wildlife! Captain Pete isn't one to disappoint, and with a few sightings of Residents on the westside, M/V Sea Lion was ready to find them. Our intention was to meet up with J Pod  along the north end of San Juan Island, but the orcas had other plans for us when...

Well, the title says it all: J Pod returned home to the waters outside the San Juan Island through the night and surprised us all in the morning! Usually, J Pod would be back in these waters foraging for salmon at the beginning of May, but we’d only seen them once. So, you can imagine everyone’s sheer delight when we heard J Pod on the hydrophones early this morning- I couldn't wait to get on the water and give guests the experience of a lifetime. And, as we boarded guests onto our...

Like many days in early spring when killer whales have no set pattern of occurrence, we left our Friday Harbor location without a confirmation of killer whales. However, when we got a possible report of transients headed through Active Pass, we decided to go check it out and see what we could see. As we entered the Strait of Georgia, our small groups of guests aboard the M/V Sea Lion got a nice surprise as we began to see dorsal fins emerge in the distance. As we got closer, I...

J Pod made an appearance this past week traveling through Haro Strait.  With exceptionally high winds this week, the Haro has been rougher than usual, but this did not stop J Pod from trudging through.  In the summer months the Haro Strait is often very calm, as it is very protected by Vancouver Island.  During winter months, the normally placid waters around San Juan, can become windswept and whitecaped.

Of the 3 Southern Resident Pods, J Pod stays closest to home during the winter...

J-Pod, and L-87, made an appearance in the San Juans this weekend. Vocalizations were heard over the hydrophone at Lime Kiln State Park Saturday night. As to their current location, some faint vocalizations were picked up on the Port Townsend hydrophone, but nobody has seen or heard from them sense. A group of possibly 30 transient orcas were spotted up in Canadian waters this weekend as well.

While the snow has turned to rain here on San Juan Island, the flakes are still coming...

Alright so not only our are Southern Resident male orcas in town, but our females too! On both our afternoon and evening trip, guests aboard M/V Sea Lion were swarmed with J, K, and L Pod! Captain Mike had his hands full trying to maintain the designated 200 yds away from the resident orcas when all 82 whales were out and about foraging over Hein Bank. You would think aboard the boat it would be filled with "ooohs and ahhhs" from guests, but infact, it was filled with "Nooo and...

We headed south today and kept high spirits through the cloudy, cold weather. It wasn't long before we saw our Harbor Seals and Steller Seal Lion at Cattle Pass! The Stellers never cease to amazing me with their size! These guys are just huge, weighing in at almost two ton.

After watching the seals we headed out to find our black and white friends! When we caught up with them, Emily and I quickly identified the J-Pod members that we were watching. Our "Cookie Clan" was there...

With eager guests, Captain Jim and myself departed on M/V Kittiwake. As soon as we got out of the harbor area, our guests were scanning the tree line for Bald Eagles. We got to Turn Island and guests spotted two Bald Eagles sitting on tree branches close to the water. The guest that spotted the Bald Eagles was celebrating his birthday!
We headed to the south, toward Hein Bank. We had reports the J-pod was spaced out and as soon as we got closer we could see this was true. We spotted...

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...