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...

1. Humpback Whales Are Huge!

The humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) is the 5th largest of the great whales. An adult humpback whale can grow to 60 feet in length and weigh up to 80,000 pounds. As with most baleen whales, female humpback whales are larger than males. The largest recorded humpback whale was a female estimated to be 89 feet long and nearly 200,000 pounds. 

Also known as the “big-winged New Englander,” humpback whales are most recognized  for their disproportionally...

The crew and passengers aboard our original San Juan Safaris vessel, the M/V Kittiwake, braved the dense fog bank that awaited us at Cattle Pass in search of earlier reports of humpback whales. At certain points during the trip visibility was as low as 150 yds! Not to worry though, because Captain Jim wasn't going to let that get in the way of seeing humpbacks!

As we motored South, passengers were constantly on the look out for our baleen friends who have traveled great distances to...

We brought in the start of a new summer with great weather on the water today! Crew and passengers alike, busted out their shorts and sunscreen while we sped out of Friday Harbor to catch up with some of our favorite summer friends, our resident orcas,  L Pod.  We didn't have to go far since L Pod was grazing along the west side of San Juan Island searching for their favorite food, Chinook salmon. Chinook salmon makes up 80 percent of resident orcas diet and on average they eat about...

What an incredible sight last night south of Victoria.  Tangerine orange sunset and TWO humpbacks feeding in synchronization…they could have won a gold medal for synchronized swimming!  These massive baleen whales were lunging for schooling fish and plankton.  We could see their throat pleats stretch as they swallowed large quantities of food.  Small fish were leaping out of the water in attempts to escape.  Guests had incredible photos of flukes and flippers.  It was a 50 mile round...

I know, you are probably wondering what in the world that word is and how it could possibly be pronounced.  Well, both fall under the category of easy to explain.  Mysticetes (MISS-ti-seats or MICE-ti-seats) are baleen whales that filter feed on small prey items.  Of course, all baleen whales are filter feeders, that is what baleen is for, the difference comes in what they are filtering out of the waters.

Humpback Whale mouth with baleen. Photo courtesy of kidcyber.com.au

The...

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...

We watched a gray whale just offshore of Whidbey Island near the Naval Air Force Base.
We watched as the whale would blow 3 to 6 times and then take a dive for a couple of minutes.
Everyone loved the heart shaped spray that the exhale makes from gray whales.
I really find it interesting that gray whales feed on benthic crustaceans in sediment.

We then headed Northwest of Smith Island and looked for a minke whale that had been seen. Some of the guests got a great view of the small...