A Long day and perhaps a shorter than normal post.

Capt. Gabe and I took two tours out with us today and we were blessed with the fast that s small portion of the Southern Residents were already moving south from Point Roberts, and moving fast! The heat wave we had a few days ago had broken so we had cool breezes and a very sunny San Juan morning. The orcas were apparently on a tight cetacean schedule because they beat us to East Point off of Saturna Island. It was the K...

Today Captain Gabe and I took out the Seahawk with a fantastic group onboard to go check out some of the unique wildlife in the Salish Sea. While we had a beautiful day in the harbor with the sun shining and the whale reports were good, it was just a bit windy out in the Haro Strait.

Our prevailing winds in this area usually come out of the SouthWest. For the San Juan Islands, this means a calm day on the water because the Olympic Mointains shield us from the worst of the...

While out on my afternoon three hour tour I was fortunate enough to encounter the J-pod! The couple I was with and I had just made our way to one of my favorite spots off of half moon bay in search of sea stars, when out of no where we heard a giant blow hole release! To our delight we saw one lone orca making it's way to the north. I mentioned how strange it was to see just one whale and either there were more coming or this one was on the move to catch up. However my...

Each Orca has a grayish-white area directly behind their dorsal fin that we call the saddlepatch. On each orca this patch is a little bit different and when we look at both the saddlepatch and the dorsal fin we can begin to pick out individuals in the pod. Today we had a great opportunity to begin to pick out individuals from the 81 members of the Southern Resident Killer Whales. Capt. Gabe, our excited guests, and I left Roche Harbor this morning with a lot of sunlight...

Today we left Roche Harbor expecting to have to drive north for a bit before we got to any orcas. Instead, we drove for about 10 minutes, and were surprised to find the J19s right away! Traveling with them, was Onyx (L-87), which led us to believe that Granny (J2) was also somewhere in the area because she is his adoptive mother. Everyone was so excited to see the new baby in J19 clan, which belongs to J41 (Eclipse), one of 4 calves born to the southern resident...

Today Captain Jim and I crewed on the ol' Hawk with sun in the sky and wildlife on the brain. We had a boat full of excited passengers hoping to see (and photograph) killer whales. The only problem: We had no early reports. Always hoping for the best, we left the dock headed south through Mosquito Pass to the Haro Strait, the body of water that separates the West side of San Juan Island from the East side of Vancouver Island, BC (Canada).

As we got towards the open water...

Do you ever feel like a day can't get any better? That's how I felt after we left Roche Harbor aboard the Seahawk on Thursday. It was a cool, sunny summer day and we were headed north, to Canada! While we crossed the glittering water in the afternoon sun we got to see some super views on both sides of Spieden Island and headed straight for East Point on Saturna Island. We soon started seeing some blows and tell-tale dark dorsal fins in the distance. It was a group of J...

It was a cool morning, and the reports that Capt. Gabe and I were hearing were that most of our nearby Southern Resident Orcas were on the south end of San Juan Island. But, one family group, the J-16's were headed east from Discovery Island in Canada! So we all headed out of Roche Harbor to meet up with one of my family groups. So, the Southern Resident Killer Whales that live here live in large groups called pods, and each of these three pods - J, K, and L - are made up...

Today Captain Gabe and I left the dock on the Seahawk with a boat full of excited passengers and reports of whales. I was particularly excited because I have been off the water and away from the wonders of the ocean for a few days. As we motored through mosquito pass under the hazy sky, we began to rack up the wildlife sightings with a great blue heron lazily flapping by and some playful river otters fearlessly running around on some rocks.

We didn't have long to wait...

Today we left Roche harbor with the reports of J pod at Eagle Point headed South.  We headed out Mosquito Pass towards Haro Strait and saw a number of seals on our route.  It is currently seal pupping season so those cute little guys are an adorable sight this time of the year.  Since the whales were headed south during our travels they ended up on the South end of Lopez Island traveling East.  Thankfully there was a trailing group of four whales that were moving at a...