For land animals, spring is the time for babies! But in the marine realm babies can and usually do follow different cycles. It’s still usually based on food availability for the newborns, but this doesn’t necessary match up with the normal temperate cycle of spring, summer, fall, winter. For cetaceans (aka whales) this is especially true since these intelligent animals are capable of traveling great distances between feeding grounds and breeding grounds and so are their...

The humpback whale sightings continue! This spring has yielded just incredible wildlife sightings, everything from various species of birds, to crazy numbers of cetaceans. May 26th was no exception!

I feel that one of the highlights of the spring has been the return of the humpback whales to their summer feeding grounds here in the Salish Sea. In the North Pacific humpback whales were considered to be commercially extinct by the year 1968. That means that whalers headed...

The Salish Sea is not just the home to many cetacean species like the Orcas, Dall’s Porpoises, and Humpback Whales but a whole menagerie of cool creatures. If you have the opportunity to visit one of the many coastal parks on the islands I definitely recommend tide-pooling. Some great places on San Juan Island are Lime Kiln State Park, Cattle Point, and False Bay. Since we’re pretty far north up here, the tide swing (the vertical difference between the lowest low tide of the day and the highest...

This is me with Bolo, one of my favorite dogs at Lollypop Farm.

I often get asked what I do for fun, and what I do in the winter/off-season from the whales. Different naturalists and staff members do an array of different things. Last summer, while on the island, I spent a lot of time volunteering at and fostering for the Animal Protection Society of Friday Harbor. This is a small, but wonderful shelter that does its best with the fundraising that its able to do here...

Salmonberry picking

Orcas swim for Salmon, I run for Salmonberries. You’ve probably heard of blackberries and raspberries but have you ever heard of a salmonberry. It might seem fishy, but it tastes like anything but. Salmonberries (Rubus spectabilis) inhabit the western coast of North America from southern Alaska down to northern California. Just like our other Rubus friends – like raspberries and blackberries - it has composite berries that are oh so sweet. Does it...

We received another misty Monday yesterday. Clouds floated low in the sky, slowly tearing away from the treetops on the islands. We headed north, and since we’re still in the shoulder season before the main schools of salmon start running through these waters we were looking mostly for Transient Orcas. Of the two ecotypes of orcas that live here one, the Residents, arrive in the summer to eat the salmon runs that occur annually. They are fish eaters and around 90% of...

Today on the M/V Sea Lion we cruised out of Friday Harbor into another sunny, brilliant, San Juan day. Today we headed south, hoping to maximize on some early reports of whale blows southwest of Cattle Pass. We crossed into a boiling current as we broke west of Cattle Point, past Whale Rocks and a couple of wary looking harbor seals. As we rounded the corner into Haro Strait it seemed the other boaters in the area had been stumped, losing track of the whales since we had...

We started out the day departing Roche Harbor with a small group of 3 guests, two from Ireland and one from the Dominican Republic.  It was an awesome opportunity to display the Pacific Northwest and all of it's natural beauty to guests visiting from so far away.  After about 45 minutes of paddling we got out to the Haro Strait where we were instantly greeted by many harbor seals.  Not 10 minutes later I heard some loud breathing and turned to notice a large tan head...

A fluke

Did you know that commercial whaling (mostly) in 1982 with a moratorium that was adopted by the International Whaling Commission? A few nations still apply for scientific permits to distribute to citizens, and another few object to the moratorium. Worldwide though, whaling is becoming less and less popular among peoples and so is declining. Sometimes it is possible to see the positive outcomes of this moratorium. Most of us have no idea how whales there normally...

It’s cooled down a little bit here, getting closer to normal May weather. The sun was still out in full, bright force but air wasn’t so hot as it has been, but summer still feels like it is here a little early. Everything is opening on the island, more folks are starting to walk around enjoying the longer sunny days, and all the plants are so excited for the sunshine after a pretty grey winter. This sunny Saturday we had a choice to make, since there was no reports out...