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

We headed out of Friday Harbor with some very fun and excited passengers.  Our first stop was right around the corner with some harbor seals hauled out on the rocks and we even saw a tiny little pup trying to climb on its moms back while swimming in the current.  We continued on through Cattle Pass and quickly found a great group of Orcas near False Bay.  As we slowly approached and started watching one group, we saw even more whales in every direction around us.  The word from other...

June 30 Pink Sea Snake by guest Erik Enstrom

Whale Watching Naturalist with Young Whale Watcher

Today on both of our trips, we encountered J-pod.  First off of the west side of San Juan Island where they were headed northeast and then off of East point, the most northwestern point of the United States, and headed into Canadian waters.  Our whales went international today, visiting a few countries along the way.

Within the pod, we were able to identify Mike.  With Mike, we found his mother J16 (Slick); she has a little...

Today we saw two Transient Orcas way up on the west side of Pender Island.  One of them was a big male with a huge dorsal that we identified as T20.  He had one of the coolest, most unique fins I have seen so far.  With a couple of notches and a port-side lean, his dorsal was easy to ID even from several hundred yards away. The whales were milling, but, overall seemed mostly interested in moving south.

The trip up was Bald Eagle central, with the birds every couple hundred yards all...

The sun was shining as we left the harbor and headed south toward Cattle Pass.  A few of the seals hauled out on the rocks lazily lifted their heads to give us a quick glance before returning to their afternoon nap.  A river otter scampered down the shoreline and slid into the water, quickly disappearing below the glassy surface.  A hand full of Steller Sea Lions were rolling around in the pass, floating and lifting their flippers into the air.  They too seemed to be enjoying the...

Another beautiful day.  That makes wo in a row!

It was calm enough to head south through Cattle Pass and do an entire circumnavigation of San Juan Island.  Whale rocks was packed with Steller Seal Lions,  Harbor Seals, and Cormorants and as we headed out toward the straight, with the wind at our backs, we decided it would be the perfect day to just keep on going.  We made it all the way around to Henry Island and turned out toward Speiden to try to sneak a peek at some land mammals. ...

We left Friday Harbor with reports of a Minke Whale in Canadian waters.  Under sunny skies and over glassy water we headed west.  As we approached the area of the last sighting we slowed to a stop and shut down the engines.  The passengers spread out along the rails and kept their eyes on the water.  After fifteen minutes of scanning we saw the small whale surface about a quarter of a mile from the boat.

We watched it surface and saw that it was moving east.  We idled parallel at...

It was a beautiful, calm day...the kind of day you just want to drive all the way to Vancouver...but it was worth it.
We heard tale of transients past East Point headed toward the coal docks.  We decided to make an attempt.

By the time we made it to the coal docks there was no turning back, eventhough the whales we still headed NW at a steady clip of 7-10 knots.  Finally another boat came into view.  Then we saw huge splashes.  Finally we caught up to the pod, almost.  They were...

What a beautiful day!  Our trip started out sunny and even a little bit warm.  We headed out of the harbor and up past Waldron toward East Point.  A passenger spotted a pair of bald eagles as soon as we were out of the slip and harbor seals were hauled out in full force along out trek up north.  Once we got to East Point we would see and hear a huge group of Stellar Sea Lions.  As we drew in closer we were treated to both Stellars and Harbor seals sharing the rock; although divided...