Another fabulous day on San Juan Island! Our Owner and Captain Brian was out on the water today and spotted transient orcas near Henry Island late this morning.  T18 was out with the T19 group hunting in Open Bay and off Battleship Island.  We often see these transient orcas in the summer months as well.  Harbor seals were the main course this morning, a favorite of transient orcas.  Brian observed lots a vocalizations after the hunt was over.  Transients are often...

On February 11, 2012, L112 a 3 year old Southern Resident Killer Whale was found stranded on the shores of Long Beach Washington.  L112, more lovingly referred to as Sooke, was the daughter of L86 Surprise!.  After two years of debate and research,  it has been concluded that Sooke died of a massive blunt force trauma to the head and neck.  It was proposed that sonar and explosives  were the cause of death as the Canadian Navy confirmed they were doing testing off...

J Pod was spotted in Haro Strait this week powering through the waves.  High winds have made our normally calm waters a more thrilling ride.  With such high waves a count was not able to be taken, but it is thought all of J Pod was out there, including Granny (J2) and Onyx (L87).

In resident orca communities, offspring usually swim with their mothers, or close family members, their whole lives.  This is not the case for Onyx.  Onyx lost his mother in 2005, and instead of...

The weather has been a little all over the place lately, so the sunshine is a wonderful reminder of how great San Juan Island is.  All the sunshine makes summer seem that much closer!  We are eagerly awaiting the 2014 season, as it seems like it will be the best yet.  With many tours already booked, it is already looking like a great summer.

J-Pod has been in and out of Puget Sound all winter, and we hope to starting seeing the whole gang more often as winter turns to...

With several snow flurries and whale sightings in the San Juan area, it was a great weekend!  While San Juan Island did not accumulate much snow, that has not been the case for Mt. Baker.  With 8 new inches in the last 8 hours, this week will be perfect for a skiing get away.

Vocalizations from J-Pod and L-87, who travels with J-Pod, were heard Saturday night on the Lime Kiln State Park hydrophone.  The clicks and whistles were easily distinguished from shoreline noise. ...

Over the weekend several transient orcas were seen in the Puget Sound area.  These orcas came in to feed on the ample supply of seals, sea lions, and porpoises.   Transient orcas are excellent hunters, and often work together as a team.  Often in the San Juans we see them porpoising on top of their prey and coming up from below very quickly.

In the summer months we typically see transient orcas, when the Southern Resident Orcas are not in the area.  However, in 2013 there...

Our whale reports have been few and fair between these last two weeks, which is not uncommon this time of year. We will take this time to look back on some of our great accomplishments during the 2013 season!

The San Juan Journal readers have spoken! San Juan Outfitters was voted Best Kayak Excursion on San Juan Island. This is a huge honor to the staff at San Juan Outfitters because the majority of the votes came from our small community right here on San Juan Island. We...

Our Southern Resident killer whales visited the waters on the west side of San Juan Island three times this last week. Now, if only they traveled through the Salish Sea during the day! Each visit happened in the dark between 7pm and midnight. Although we did not see J & K pods in the daylight, we seriously enjoyed their playful chatter on the OrcaSound.net hydrophones. There are two hydrophones located on the west side of San Juan Island. The hydrophone node at Lime Kiln...

Southern Resident Killer Whales showed up on Christmas Day! J27 Blackberry, and J2 Granny (who is over 100 years old!) and about 16 Orcas were sighted heading southbound near Seattle near Shilshole Bay Marina and West Point/Discovery Park. The Southern Resident Orcas were traveling at a fast pace, moving at about 5-7 knots.

The next day, we received reports first thing in the morning of killer whales traveling across the shipping lanes from West Point toward Bainbridge...

San Juan Island received it's first real snow fall of the winter. The San Juan Islands and greater Puget Sound area does not get that much snow, surprisingly. We enjoy a relatively mild climate all year round. It does get very hot in the summer (anything over 80 degrees is considered "record breaking heat!) and winter days are usually 35 to 45 degrees. It was very exciting to wake up with snow! The kids on San Juan Island made snowmen & snow angles during their 2-hour...