A Plethora of Playmates

It would be easier for me to list the animals that we did not see today, rather than to list the ones that we did. I think that the only sightings that we did not log were of the Titanic and the Loch Ness Monster. Jaclyn and I could hardly contain our excitement, which is to say that we completely abandoned all trappings of professionalism to run around the boat screaming, every time we saw something new. Capt. Craig insured that we saw all that we could today by monitoring the "chatter" on the radio and doing a wonderful job of getting us to each new adventure.

So, our line-up for the day was as follows:

• Orcas
• Humpback whales (3)
• Minke whale
• Steller's sea lions
• Harbor seals
• Dall's porpoises
• Harbor porpoises
• Bald eagle
• Common murres
• Marbled murrelets
• Sooty shearwaters
• Phalaropes
• Seagulls (various species)

I love the San Juan Islands and the Pacific Northwest and we at San Juan Safaris know that you will too. So from all of us, to all of you, thank you and we will...

See You In The Islands!

~Tristen, Naturalist

Orca Whales and Wildlife Are Our Only Business. ©

Minke Maneuvers

Our evening sunset tours are very popular, but after tonight they are going to be the talk of the town. It is not every day that less than five minutes after you leave the dock you are with a whale. But on this night, that is exactly what happened. Capt. Nancy and I boarded our guests onto the MV Sea Lion for an evening cruise in the hopes that the Orcas that we knew were west of Victoria, B.C. would swim our direction. I had just finished giving the group some history on the islands and was stowing the gear when a customer on the bow yelled "WHALE". Capt. Nancy and I assumed it was a porpoise or a seal, because how could it be a whale, we were in Friday Harbor. But sure enough, up it came again and the blow gave it away as a whale.

As it turns out there was a Minke Whale feeding right in the mouth of the harbor. It slowly circled the boat in a feeding pattern as we drifted in the current. It would breathe once and then dive for approximately 2 minutes. The captain and I agreed that we had never heard of something like this happening before. Of course, just a few nights before I had watched a Harbor Seal feeding on a Herring bait ball right in the marina. The fish were right up next to the floating dock amidst the boats and the seal was maneuvering effortlessly through the water slurping up it's dinner. If it had followed the food into the harbor, there was no reason that the Minke couldn't do the same thing. Being only 30' long there is more than enough room in the channel for the whale to swim and move.

The rest of our tour was full of porpoises, eagles and we even caught a glimpse of some of the Sika and Fallow Deer on Spieden Island. The eaglet looks as good as ever in the nest on Spieden as well, and was busy chowing down on some dinner that a parent flew into it while we were watching. It looked as if snake was on the menu tonight.

The bounty and beauty of the islands is unsurpassed and we are all proud to call it home. So, from all of us at San Juan Safaris to all of you who dream to visit, thank you and we will...

See You In The Islands!
~Tristen, Naturalist


Orca Whales and Wildlife Are Our Only Business. ©

Oh How Many Minkes!

The reports of Orcas are starting to roll in, but they are still too far West for us to get to them. Our Gray Whale friend, whom I have dubbed Clyde the glide, was possibly still in the waters near the naval air station, but our stalwart group clamored for something out of the ordinary. So South we headed, but for Hein Bank instead of Whidbey Island.

Our own parrot owning Capt. Craig toured us through breathtakingly calm waters in the Strait of Juan de Fuca where there were seabirds and Harbor Seals by the swarms. I saw the first loon of the season attempting to hide amongst all of the cormorants and I may have even seen a puffin, except that it dove under before I could get a good look at it. Two other wildlife watching boats were in the area of the bank and they were watching two Minke Whales dive and forage. Luckily we found our own whale and got wonderful unobstructed views of its pointed rostrum, or nose area, as it surfaced as well as the rostral grooves along the top of its snout leading to the blow holes. What a magnificent sight, especially since it went about its business of foraging and didn't seem to pay us any mind. Each time the whale broke the surface of the glassy waters we could hear its movements all was so still.

We finally had to leave the Minke, but there was more to see. Views of Victoria and Vancouver Island, Lime Kiln Point State Park with Lime Kiln Lighthouse, Harbor Porpoises playing in our wake and a surprising group of eagles. As we came around Spieden Island to see the Cactus Islands Capt. Craig spotted an eagle sitting on some rocks alone. All of a sudden we realized that we were surrounded by Bald Eagles. There were juveniles at all stages and adults; birds in the water, birds on the rocks and birds in the trees on both islands. You could not hardly take a picture for deciding which one was best.

I was astounded by the day. It was great to be out on the MV Sea Lion and I can now officially say that I have seen a Minke whale. And more eagles than I have ever seen in my life. Our enthusiastic group was a treasure as always and prompts me to say, from all of us at San Juan Safaris to all of you everywhere, thank you and we will...

See You In The Islands!
~Tristen, Naturalist


Orca Whales and Wildlife Are Our Only Business. ©

Where's the pot of gold?

We saw whales!! And more than one species! In San Juan Channel we found a small Minke whale moving southbound. Minkes are a small baleen whale, filter feeding on small schooling fish....typically no larger than 30 feet in length. This little one, must be a young one, it was probably no longer than 20 feet, although they are hard to judge in size when they surface. Interesting that this little guy or gal was in the channel, we more commonly see them out at Salmon or Hein Bank, or at least somewhere near Cattle Pass. Very cool though and some great looks! Also saw a few Harbor Porpoise while we were waiting for the Minke to re-surface after a longer dive.

Off into Canadian waters near Moresby Island we met up with a group of 4 Transient Orcas. According to Soundwatch it is believed these were with a larger group of Ts seen around Nanaimo yesterday! That means they really have travelled quite a distance...maybe 60 miles or so! They were somewhat elusive....changing direction frequently but still milling about in the general area. It was not unusual for this pod to take a few shallow dives, surfacing over the coarse of a few minutes, then be down for 5-10 minutes and have done a 180 degree turn and surface over 1/4 mile away! We think it may have been the T124As....mom with her 3 calves.

Scouting for Bald Eagles on the way back in...no luck...but lots of Harbor Seals swimming and lounging about. The Minke was still in the channel, judging by the other whale watching boat and research boat in the vicinity.

To top it off a brief rain cloud passed overhead, a nice rain shower followed by a beautiful rainbow! The end touching down somewhere in the water! Now all we need is the pot of gold!

-Jaclyn Van Bourgondien, naturalist

Marine Mammal Extravaganza

Below: J16 with year old calf J42 taken by Adam U on June 3, 2008 aboard our boat the MV Sea Lion.

Today was mirror calm as we headed out from Friday Harbor to South Beach, on southwestern San Juan Island. We got word the Southern Residents were back within range and were moving south down San Juan Island.

When we arrived on scene, we got a few decent looks at some females, but they weren't arching at all and it was difficult to see the saddle to get a positive ID. We continued to parallel the animals, but moved north to meet up with the larger groups ahead. We had some great looks at L74 (Saanich) a 22 year old male as he moved down island with other members of L Pod. L74 has an interesting family group because there are no longer producing females in this matriline (aka the old L9s). The only female is L5 (Tanya) who is 44 years old and her youngest calf (that we know of) was born in 1986 and is a male named Flash. Flash and Saanich are cousins and there were reports of Flash and Tanya in our vicinity, but we paralleled Saanich so as not to get stuck in a bad position. We allowed L74 to move on and stopped to get a nice look at L67 (Splash) as she logged at the surface near the Center for Whale Research boat. We watched her logging for a few minutes and then she seemed to become more active and gave us a nice look at her saddle and nicks, this was great for our group because she's an easy animal to learn what to look for in the identification process. We did not see her youngest calf, L101 (Aurora) in the immediate vicinity and are unsure whether he's been seen this year. We will have to keep our eyes peeled and our ears open for any reports of L101. Splash was the mother of Luna (L98) the orca who found his way to Nootka Sound of the west side of Vancouver Island. Let's hope she has better luck with L101.

Not only did we have an incredible orca encounter, on our way back to Cattle Pass, we saw a Minke Whale lunge feeding in a bird ball! (See the drawing of a Minke Whale above.) Minkes are the smallest members of the "finner" whales and often get overlooked because of the charismatic orcas. It was nice for our guests to see orcas (Dolphins/toothed whales) and a Minke, which is a baleen whale. We got a few good looks as the Minke as it headed towards Cattle Point and then moved on to see a group of FOUR male Steller Sea Lions playing near Whale Rocks! They were rolling around and splashing over each other, which was quite the show.

We had an incredible trip in which we got great looks at many of the marine mammals that call the San Juan Islands home... at some point during the year.

We still have space available for tomorrow. Call in for a reservation: 800-450-6858.

Megan Young, Naturalist

T. Time

Photo: T14 Tail Slap from our sunset trip. Photo taken by our guest, a marine biologist, Adam U.

Yesterday was a beautiful 80 degree day! Our weather has warmed up substantially and is becoming more characteristically consistent. The past four days have been sunny, warm, and clear. Yesterday we had three trips go out and each was unique with what we saw.

The Kittiwake, our limited adult tour, had an extended trip so they could see as much wildlife as possible. These 14+ charters allow for more leeway with time and where we go. Yesterday the Kittiwake had a whale of a day and encountered a Minke Whale, the smallest of the fin whales, a Humpback Whale, and the Transient Orca T14. It's always exciting to see different whales and dolphins to compare their anatomy as well as behaviors.

The Sea Lion had two trips. Each trip gave us a wonderful encounter with the wildlife that call our islands home. We had some playful Dall's Porpoises on our first trip who used our boat for "target practice" as they zigged and zagged around the Sea Lion. We even saw a Dall's jump clear out of the water, something I've never seen before. Our sunset trip allowed us to see T14. T14 is a pretty famous Transient as he helped to put an end to live captures in the United States.

We have a few trips going out today as well... call to reserve a spot now!

Megan, Naturalist

Eagles, and Dolphins, and Whales... Oh My!

Today, although a bit chilly on the water, was quite fulfilling as we saw seals, eagles, J-Pod, and even a Minke Whale. As stated previously, the orcas are the largest members of the dolphin family and are often referred to as whales. This confusion is caused by their other name, Killer Whale. Many times we have a dolphin encounters (seeing orcas), but very rarely is it actually a whale watch. The great Minke sighting allows us to say we saw dolphins AND a whale today. Minkes are preyed upon by Transient Orcas, but have been seen swimming in the midst of Resident Orcas. Today the Minke was just south of Cattle Pass, a few miles south of False Bay where J-Pod was foraging. The guests seemed to enjoy picking out little J-42 as she surfaced, face exposed, next to her mom, J-16. J-16 is easy to pick out due to her bright open saddle on the right side and bright saddle with a finger on the left side. She is made even easier to ID with a calf at her side.

All in all it was a fascinating trip with great views of the variety of life we have here in the San Juans. Until tomorrow....

Megan, Naturalist

Travel Buddies

Today was nice and sunny and J-Pod graced us with their presence once again!

We left Friday Harbor for Village Point, which is on the north end of Lummi Island in the Rosario Strait. J-Pod was heading south from Village Point at a good cruising speed of about 8 mph. They were spread out front to back and surprised us when a Minke Whale popped up with them. This is a RARE occurrence and our guests had the privilege of seeing not only J-Pod, but also the smallest baleen whale. We found this ironic because the Transient Orcas have been known to eat Minke, so this particular whale must have known he was in safe fish-eating company. A group of about 7 J-Pod members were seen surfacing right next to the Minke, with no negative interactions.

Orca are the largest members of the dolphin family and are not "whales" from a scientific perspective. (Although this confuses many since they are often referred to as the Killer Whale.) So our guests got to see eagles, seals, dolphins, and a whale!!! What a treat and what an incredible day. The air is warming up, J-Pod is back, and the flowers are in bloom. It's a perfect time to be on the water! Until next time...

Megan, Naturalist

Don’t Blinkey… You’ll Miss the Minke

Dall's riding the bow waves. From the Orca Spotting Network.

What an awesome day for a wildlife trip! Yesterday gave us glassy seas and beautiful sunlight. We began our trip keeping our eyes on the water because the conditions gave us the perfect opportunity for a sighting of some sort. No sooner than we prepared our guests for a sighting, we got word that a Minke whale (pronounced Min-key) was feeding off Saturna Island in Canada.

We sped toward Canada in hopes of some great observations. (We want to observe, not interact with the wildlife.) Sure enough, our Minke friend was just where our Canadian friends said. Minkes are the smallest members of the baleen whales. They don’t have teeth like our orca, but plates that resemble stiff hairs for teeth. They feed on krill and small fish by opening their mouth and swimming through the water. They close their mouth and push the water out through the baleen plates, which leaves their food trapped inside. It’s so funny how such a large creature preys on some of the smallest. The Minke cruised back and forth through the water in a zig-zag pattern. Minkes are a bit more shy than our orca and don’t make as big of a scene when they’re around. We got good views of the Minke’s back and stubbly little dorsal fin. Minkes are bigger than orcas, but their dorsals are quite a bit smaller.

After hanging out with the Minke for a while, we headed to the Haro Strait for some porpoise encounters. Captain Hobbes thought the day was perfect for a playful porpoise and his predictions proved true. We got just off Turn Point on Stuart Island and Dall’s came in to ride the bow waves. Our guests and crew clapped and whistled for them, which only encouraged them to keep playing. (Not all wildlife, however, appreciate noise. Our Dall’s are a bit of an exception.)

Our trip concluded with a trip to Speiden to see the Mouflon Sheep and Fallow Deer as well as some Stellers hanging out at Green Point. The Stellers really impressed our guests with their massive bodies and loud roars. We even had some Bald Eagles looking down on the Stellers, which only added to a great day of wildlife viewing. These waters are teeming with life and every day is truly a safari!

Minke Whale Sighting September 14, 22007

Aboard the Sea Lion getting ready to take off

Yesterday afternoon I played tourist. The season is quickly drawing to a close and I was a guest aboard San Juan Safaris "Sea Lion." Our naturalist Rebbecca was outstanding. Her knowledge and ability to relate to guests is one of the keys that makes San Juan Safaris a success.

Capt. Richard Rodriquez