4th of July is right around the corner and the whales are here to help celebrate! Captain Craig, Andrew, and myself had two great trips today. We started the day off right with brilliant blue skies and not a cloud in sight. Our afternoon trip had a boat full of eager passengers ready to spot some resident orcas. With binoculars at the ready, we cruised along the west side of San Juan Island till we encountered a subgroup of L Pod. The group we watched for the remainder of our...

We left Friday Harbor today with our hopes set high on encountering our Southern Resident Killer Whales. This was the first time we have seen our Killer Whales since Saturday, and we were very happy to welcome them back. We headed out through Cattle Pass and into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Our guests braved the high seas with enthusiasm and wonderful questions while waiting to get on seen with the whales!

L-41 (Mega) was there to welcome us as he appeared out of the water, with his...

We left our Friday Harbor location today and headed south out the San Juan Channel, though Cattle Pass, and into the Haro Strait where we came across a Humpback Whale! This was the same Humpback that we saw last night right off the south end of San Juan Island. When we reached Hein Bank, the whale was heading toward Vancouver, BC. At first it was diving deep and staying down for about eight minutes at a time. Then, the whale seemed to have a change of pace and started swimming slowly...

Sunset trips happen to be Captain Mike and I's favorite trips to go out on with our guests. Tonight was great! We left Friday Harbor and went to the south end of San Juan Island, through Cattle Pass and into the Haro Strait. The whales were right off of Eagle Point and were spread out feeding. Mega (L-41) was there, as well as Ocean Sun (L-25) who happens to be the oldest female in L-Pod. These guys seemed to be on a course of their own hunting for the Chinook Salmon they prefer to...

It was a beautiful day to be on the water! We left Friday Harbor and headed south through Cattle Pass and into the Haro Strait where we hoped to encounter some whales. On our way out, we came across numerous Harbor Seals that were utilizing the the upwellings created by the tidal current. These upwellings are a great place for the Harbor Seals to forage and we love seeing their little heads bobbing up and down in the water!

When we got on scene with the whales Keven and I quickly...

Today Captain Mike, naturalist Caitlin and myself headed out of the San Juan Channel, through Cattle Pass and to the south end of the Haro Strait. We had heard rumors about the whale activity on the south end of the island and hoped to encounter L-Pod and even some transient killer whales! This trip we had a particularly great, enthusiastic group of guests on board and our hopes were high when we saw our first spout from our resident L-Pod.

This is the second day that L-Pod has been...

We headed South today from our Friday Harbor location and into the San Juan Channel where we promptly had to do a "man overboard" drill to retrieve one of our customers hats! The hat flew off and into the water, at which point Captain Mike swiftly turned the boat around and Caitlin and I retrieved the water-logged hat! Sometimes, we start out with a little excitement right in the very beginning! We'll always go out of our way to make sure we still have smiling faces aboard!

After the...

Captain Mike, Andrew and myself left our Friday Harbor location today and headed south through the San Juan Channel and into Cattle Pass where we hoped to encounter some great whale activity. Along the way we stopped to say "hello" to my favorite small critters that are known to inhabit the Salish Sea: Harbor Seals. The harbor seals thrive on our large tidal difference here which create the upwellings they navigate through to hunt. Their whiskers on the front of their face are...

The day started off great! As we headed out into the San Juan Channel, Captain Mike, Naturalist Kevin and myself along with our eager guest came across our local Harbor Seals feeding in the amazing tidal rips that develop in the Cattle Pass area. We saw close to a hundred Harbor Seals!

From there, we heading out through Cattle Pass were we encountered at least a half dozen Minke whales. Minke whales are approximately 25-30 feet long and feed in the shallower waters off the south end...

We left our Friday Harbor location today, hoping for a great day with the whales in the Salish Sea. We headed south towards Cattle Pass where we saw dozens of harbor seals having a great time foraging. From there, we headed into the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Haro Strait off the south end of San Juan Island where we encountered the L-12's, a smaller sub-group of the larger L-Pod (our resident killer whales). It didn't take long before we recognized L-41 otherwise known as Mega who...