Thursday was a great day. Sunny, calm, and we headed east which usually doesn't happen. towards the east side of Orcas Island. When we hit the rips off of Obstruction Pass you could see the clear green-tinted water of the Salish Sea churning as currents collided and looking downward you could actually see some Chinook Salmon! And where there are Chinook is the best place to search for Southern Resident Killer Whales. K pod appeared! We first spotted Scoter (K-25) with his very wide...

Some folks call these groups of islands the "Banana Belt" because they do exist in a rain shadow and they get about half the amount of rain that Seattle is famous for. The Olympic Mountains and the peaks along Vancouver Island block a lot of the incoming rains from the Pacific Ocean. So days here, especially in the summer are usually sunny and calm and there's many a time where one can look in every direction to see rain clouds, but the islands are in their own little hole of...

Naturalist Rachel, Captain Pete and I were very excited for our day on the M/V Sea Lion. The sun was shining, our guests were chipper, and we had positive whale reports leaving the dock! A positive whale report leaving the dock does not necessarily guarantee whale sightings, but it always gives you that lucky feeling in the pit of your stomach. We cruised south this afternoon through San Juan Channel and around Cattle Point Lighthouse at the southern tip of San Juan Island. We were...

Today we left the Friday Harbor dock and motored north on a report of whales heading in to Boundary Pass from East Point. By the time we got that far north, they had already reached Stuart Island. When they reached Turn Point, they began to head south in to Haro Straight. Although they were very spread out, we could tell that we had a large number of whales in the area, members from J, K, AND L pod. We were able to at least identify the J16s (my personal favorites), the K14s, and...

If you haven't heard yet it's Superpod week on San Juan Island. This is now an annual event that brings together whale researchers, whale watchers, whale enthusiasts, conservationists, documentarians, and sincerely concerned citizens to Friday Harbor for a week of films, talks, and get-togethers to learn and discuss how to better protect the Southern Resident Killer Whales. So, in all, a big meeting of whale intentioned folks. It's a big week for the island and a big week for those...

There's a few things you should know about orcas. First: they're fast. They can get up to 30 knots on a good day. And you're all, "But that's not that fast, Erick" and then I'm all, "Well, imagine 8 tons of pure speed and salmon eating muscle traveling through heavy currents traveling at 35 mph (56kph for the rest of the world)" and now I'll give you time to be impressed... Orcas are one of the fastest marine mammals alive and in groups they can travel around 100 miles (161 km) in a...

It was a drizzly morning here in Friday Harbor, but we definitely needed that rain and by the time the afternoon rolled around the sun was peaking out again. Capt. Jim, 9 guests, and I all left the harbor on the Kittiwake with reports of Southern Resident Killer Whales heading south along the southern tip of San Juan Island. Never ever has there been a calmer day that I can remember on the Salish Sea especially when we got onto the west side - smooth as glass. On the way to meet up...

We often tell guests that Killer Whales can travel 100 miles in a day, a point of reference for the potential for viewing them in this immense archipelago. As we left Friday Harbor we were witness to how far a group can travel. The morning reports had the J2 Matriline somewhere on the South end of San Juan Island but we were headed for the East entrance to Active Pass, about 50 miles away from where they'd started.

Personally heading up through the similar, but just slightly...

For the past few days, we've been meeting up with the residents on the west side of SJI, so today, when we had a report for Boundary Pass, we were excited to be able to switch things up. So, we left Friday Harbor and headed North. We met up with the K13s just between Saturna and South Pender Island. They were fairly spread out, but we got a good look at all 7 pod members and a good amount of breaches! We were lucky enough to hang out with them from there, all the way past Turn point...

This trip was one of the best whale watches of my life. We motored off to the southwest side of San Juan Island, where we met up with the Southern residents, (and a minke whale!) At first, we could just see one or two whales here and there, surfacing sporadically. In time, however, they began to surface more often, and more predictably, more seemed to appear, and before we knew it, we were watching a greeting ceremony. Whales joined up to form larger and larger pods, and then each...