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Today was a unique day. Most of the 23 people aboard the Sea Lion were part of a wedding party. The funny thing is, no one told me a couple was getting married on board. It was innocuously written in our reservation book. When I asked the pastor if he needed the space cleared of people for the ceremony he said to me "These are all our guests." And he didn't just mean the people they'd brought with them. There were several guests in the cabin who didn't even realize two people were...

It was whales again today, but this time it was two humpbacks along the west side of San Juan Island.  That makes three different whale species in two days spotted here in the San Juan Islands!  Wow, what a cool place.  It is exceptionally cool when you think about the fact that humpbacks are rare here around the islands.  Normally, if they come into the Salish Sea they do not make it past Victoria Harbor.  Today was our day though and we took advantage of it.  And, as if seeing the...

#53 - Photo courtesy of Cascadia Research Collective

Today we followed whales across the Strait of Juan de Fuca.   A vague report of a whale south of San Juan Island became a gray whale known as #53 (see photo above).  On our way towards the area where he was said to be, one of our guests spotted something else in the water.  I quickly left the bridge to sit on the bow and see if I could help find anything.  Sure enough, up popped a juvenile minke whale a few hundred yards from us. ...

What do you do when there are no reports of whales?  Which way do you go so that you are in the best position in case whales are spotted?  How do you predict where whales are going to be?  The answers are - wildlife tour, any way you want and you don't.  The hardest part about being a Marine Naturalist when there are no whales, is convincing people that no one else is seeing whales either and that when it comes to our orca whales, it is impossible to predict when and where they will...

Many of the islands in the San Juans were named for the Spanish explorers who first recorded coming across them. Like those explorers, we felt gratified in circumnavigating our 15 by ten mile island that we call home. We left Friday Harbor and headed south. The water was smooth like a mirror and our new naturalist Casey looked for wildlife while I entertained our guests with facts about the islands. Soon we came across rocks covered in harbor seals about to burst. Pupping season is...

This group of 27 flew up on Kenmore Air, spent about one hour looking around Friday Harbor
then headed off to sea. They have a catered gourmet lunch and desert aboard and are all wearing
their new San Juan Safaris T Shirts.  They all work for Ferrero Roche Chocolates in the German office.

L pod!  Transients?  L pod?  Transients!

It was a confusing day with orcas today.  With L pod having been spotted the day before in Haro Strait, when orcas were first seen off the Southern end of San Juan Island everyone assumed it was the Residents again.  The whale watch fleet was deployed, as were the various researchers, to spend time with our famed orcas.  What a surprise it was then, especially to me since I had just informed our boat load of guests all about the local pods...

Hopefully.  Thinking positively, then the orcas are back and they look great!  We spent the trip yesterday afternoon with numerous members of L pod over in the Canadian Gulf Islands.  The first reports came in early in the morning with the orcas being well outside of our northern range.  They covered an incredible amount of water in a short time though and when we left the dock they were slaloming through Active Pass between Galiano and Mayne islands.  Capt. Mike did not waste any...

There is more to life in the islands than orcas.  With every brochure and website showing photos of leaping black and white behemoths, it is easy to forget that there are other equally stunning species that live in this area.  It is also easy to overlook the basic beauty of the setting for fear that you might miss that one great shot of a killer whale.  For these reasons it is always rather nice that the season starts and ends so "slowly".  These days spent rocking in the cradle of...