Today was a close encounter kinda day. The whales decided to be curious of our boat and we got some amazing close looks at a few mature males resident orcas. Besides the close encounters it was an outstanding day on the water! Calm seas, and not a cloud in the sky. Along with whales we saw many harbor seals, bald eagles and harbor porpoise. I really wish everyday was as perfect as today. Postcard perfect!

Naturalist Chelsea
M/V Sea Hawk
San Juan Outfitters

Just got back from an epic kayak tour! We saw whales breaching in the distance as we sat in kelp beds surrounded by harbor seals. The paddle back was blessed with some huge lions mane jellyfish! What a day!

San Juan Outfitters Kayak Guide Owen, 3 hour tour, July 27, 2014

Today I had the pleasure of accompanying an amazing family on a pretty beautiful paddle. This morning we paddled out to the bull kelp forest near Battleship Island, just off of Henry Island. Bull kelp is an important species in the Salish Sea, creating critical habitat for crabs, small fish, and even harbor seals! We enjoyed the antics of a particularly friendly seal dipping and diving through the currents. On our way back into Roche Harbor we stopped on Posey Island the...

Yesterday we left Roche Harbor with reports of a minke whale across Haro Strait.  We headed across Haro Strait into Canada!  We got a few good looks at the Minke Whale and then decided to go around Stewart Island and through John's Pass.  Minke Whales are the smallest of the baleen whales at about 30 feet in length.  We went through John's pass and saw quite a few harbor seals with their pups.  It is pupping seasons for the seal pups so have been seeing quite a few of...

Today on M/V Sea Hawk, guests were able to see Resident Orcas just outside of Mosquito Pass. This group of orcas were first spotted today off of Saturna Island and throughout of the whole day they continued south. During peak season and any time from 10am to 8pm, the orcas have at least one whale watch boat with them. With this being peak season, it is common to see pleasure boats with our beloved orcas as well. There is one vessel in particular that watches the pleasure...

Our 5-hour paddle today was full of iconic Pacific Northwest wildlife sightings!  We counted several Bald Eagles, some soaring and some perched in tree tops, others dive bombing for big fish. Harbor seals swam playfully around our boats as we paddled along the West side of Henry Island. With the wind at our backs and a flooding current carrying us forth, we felt quite rewarded during the second half of our paddle after working hard against some southwest wind coming...

Another beautiful day here in the San Juans! Today was a comfortable 70 degrees with blue skies.   We got up close and personal with some harbor seals and had some great looks at some bald eagles.  There were four eagles total and it seemed like two of them followed us for a majority of our paddle.  They were chattering to each other a lot today! Did you know that the long screech you hear eagles do in the movies is not actually a sound an eagle makes at all? It's...

Today we left Roche Harbor with whale reports down by Lime Kin Lighthouse.  We headed out of Mosquito pass and saw some harbor seals with their pups.  It is currently pupping season so we are seeing the baby seals pretty frequently.  We came out of Mosquito Pass and found the whales a little North of Lime Kiln Lighthouse heading south.  We went south with the whales and got a great look at J27 (Blackberry) and his sister J31 (Tsuchi) a little offshore.  We left the two...

It was a long journey for M/V Sea Hawk- reports had our resident killer whales all the way at the very southern most point of Victoria. Most captains might be concerned that was too far a trek, but not Captain Chris, he was ready to traverse the channels to get to those whales! All was calm within the Haro Strait for M/V Sea Hawk's passengers and crew, and it looked like it was going to be a rather peaceful jaunt. It wasn't until we reach the Strait of Juan De Fuca that...

The sun breaking through on a mostly overcast sky gave us the perfect temperature to kayak a great distance. We moved south through Mosquito pass, pausing for a moment through Garrison Bay and English camp, and eventually reached our lunch destination at Open Bay. It was a great paddle and although worn out a bit, everyone was in high spirits.

Kayak Guide Josh, 5-hr kayak tour, San Juan Island Outfitters Whale Watching & Kayak Tours