This Saturday was pretty special.  Our crew had the honor of assisting in the memorial service of a long-time island resident. Our guests said their goodbyes on a beautiful sunny day in between the Olympic Mountains and the San Juan Islands. As the current gently pushed us along in between Lopez and San Juan and the service ended we had a hunch that there may be some Transient Orcas traveling in the thick fog bank sliding out of the Strait. Transient Orcas usually travel...

We were again treated to orcas close to San Juan Island. On the warmest day of the year so far and some of the best sunshine we’ve had in a while, we were definitely ready for another foray into the waters of the Salish Sea.

Again we had no reported whales in the area, but as we have seen in the past few days that does not mean that there are no whales around. We changed things up a bit and headed south, enjoying the scenery of the shorelines of both San Juan Island and...

Yesterday did not seem as though its was going have such a magical outcome. We left the dock with no good report of orcas. Then, thirty minutes off the dock, Captain Mike pulled me into the wheelhouse to pass along the news: Orcas, and lots of them! I hurriedly passed the news along to guests as we cruised under sunny San Juan skies watching gulls and harbor porpoise flit past.

We continued North around East Point on Saturna Island in British Columbia and stopped to...

I don’t know about you, but I love babies, and most of all I love orca babies! Especially when they spyhop and fluke and are extra chubby. First though I got to back up. This Saturday, the M/V Sea Lion received reports of killer whales off the west side of San Juan Island, heading north through Haro Strait. We set off with Capt. Mike, Naturalist Sarah, and myself to go find these big, black and white animals on another spectacularly beautiful, sunny, spring day.

As we...

We woke up this morning and it felt like summer! The sun was shining, the sky was that special shade of San Juan blue, and there were reports of whales! We headed north out of the harbor skirting the shore of San Juan Island. There were so many bald eagles out and about today, pretty much everywhere we looked we could find one! I think our end count today on eagles was right around 29 individuals!

We headed out into the northern portion of Haro Strait to a pair of...

[caption id="attachment_1217" align="aligncenter" width="1024" caption="T137A Spyhops to take a look at whale watchers after hunting with his family"]

This Saturday we got a lovely break in the infamous spring rains of Washington and also a lovely visit by a transient killer whale family. The Sea Lion went south out of Friday Harbor with Capt. Mike, Naturalist Kev, and myself to head for some reports of Transient Killer Whales hunting in the area. Transient Killer...

We are getting spoiled with these early season trips here on San Juan Island! Yesterday was one of those magical trips that we have spent all winter dreaming about. Captain Mike and I left Friday Harbor with a lively private charter group on the search for some wildlife! As it is still early season for seeing killer whales, I was cautiously optimistic on our chances of seeing whales, but thought if we did see orcas that they would most likely be some of our local Bigg’s...

Happy first day of spring! Captain Mike and I had the pleasure of taking out Whale Watch and Wildlife Charter today for the first day of spring.  With early rumors of whales, we were all hopeful for a sighting.  Captain Mike, communicating with other member of the PWWA was able to track down J Pod off the west side of San Juan Island, in Haro Strait, near Vancouver Island.  It was a beautiful calm day on the water and we were able to get many great looks at the group of...

Cruising in the San Juan Islands is a treat any time of the year, but it is those special clear sunny days in the spring and fall that make my heart sing. Yesterday we enjoyed a gorgeous early spring day viewing numerous bald eagles, harbor seals, porpoises, and Steller’s sea lions. We also had the chance to view some new baby mouflon sheep on the slopes of Spieden Island. Take a look below!

Harbor seals on a rock in the San Juan Islands

First mouflon lambs of the...

Individual orcas can be distinguished from one another by looking at preexisting  markings on their bodies. Though whales can be told apart by the markings on their cheeks or their eypatches, we primarily look at the saddlepatch, the grey marking behind the dorsal fin. Once those markings are recorded via photograph, alphanumeric (Letter-Number) codes are assigned to individuals. We have two populations of orcas in our waters, Residents, salmon-eaters, and Transients...