The M/V Sea Lion motored out of Friday Harbor today and headed north! With September comes the fall weather, guests on board braved the misty, chilly weather to watch some Orcas. It was certainly worth it because as soon as we got north of Stewart Island we caught up with the T-19 group of mammal hunting whales! I was particularly excited because I hadn't seen the infamous "Mr.Floppy" yet this summer. He is an 18 year old male and his dorsal fin has almost reached maturity. It looks...

It’s not often that we get to choose between viewing Bigg’s Killer Whales or Southern Resident Killer Whales on the same trip. That was the case today. I wish we could spread out this luck for the guests who didn’t get to see any killer whales on their trip. For a time during peak summer, we were striking out trip after trip, at a time when killer whale sightings should have been at their peak. That unpredictability is part of the fun of viewing killer whales in the wild.

So what did...

With another beautiful day in the San Juans, Captain Mike, Caitlin, and I were thrilled to have great guests on board the boat and positive reports of resident orcas. Captain Mike steered us north toward the south end of Pender Island in Canada. We encountered a group of about 14 orcas consisting of member of L pod and K pod. These orcas were displaying resting patterns traveling slowing north. We were able to drop the hyrophone in and listen in on their conversations! After...

As the sun beat down on Captain Craig, the guests, and I we enjoyed a cool breeze as we left the harbor. With temperatures near 80 degrees today, everyone was thankful to be out on the water! We were lucky enough to have positive reports of transient orcas in Canadian waters. We arrived on scene near Gooch Island to find about 8 transient orcas milling in a kelp bed. After traveling past Mandarte Island the orcas appeared to find something to eat! While, it all happened under...

The M/V Sea Lion left our Friday Harbor location and headed south today, out through Cattle Pass and out to Hein Bank. It had turned into a gorgeous day with sunny skys and calm water. Everyone was happy to be on a boat rather than on land! Along our way to Hein Bank, we came across many steller sea lions! These guy's are just huge, and never cease to amaze me with their size! They were on and along whale rocks fighting, roaring, and some that were just laying in the sun. Yep, they...

Today was another one of those magical days, sunny skies, flat water, and family groups of Resident Orcas everywhere. When the M/V Sea Lion got on scene with the whales we saw numerous dorsal fins and spouts in the distance, and they were all coming our way! As it turned out, all of LPod was there traveling together in the Haro Strait. I quickly calculated the number of dorsal fins and surmised that it had to be LPod since they have the largest pod size and most male Orcas. Male Orca...

When we left Friday Harbor, today we didn't have an Orca report and were planning on heading south to look at Minke Whales for our 1:30 whale watch. However, we soon got word of some mammal hunting Orcas up north near Portland and Salt Spring Island in Canada! We were all very excited at the news, and even though it would be a long trip to get there, it was well worth it. Guest settled in on the bow and in the cabin and enjoyed the incredibly scenic ride up north into the Canadian...

With dense fog rolling into Friday Harbor, Captain Mike, the guests, and I headed north toward reports of Resident Orcas in Boundry Pass. The fog made everything very quiet and it was interesting to see the Islands through the wisps. Luckily, once we motored into Boundry Pass, the fog cleared and we were left with blue patches of sky and glassy waters. Once on scene, we were pleased to find that there were a plethora of whales in the area! We first viewed the L-12 matriline, and...

For the last two days the M/V Sea Lion and guests have been enjoying watching our Southern Resident Killer Whales. These Orcas are notorious for feeding on Chinook Salmon and do so at about 300-400 lbs per day! We've been seeing some great foraging behavior lately as well as lot's of social behavior! We've seen them feeding, breaching, spyhoping, cartwheeling, logging, and even mating! These Orcas are very social and love to vocalize. One of everyone's favorite things about the...

Caitlin, myself, and captain Mike left our Friday Harbor location today to head to the West side of San Juan Island. There is usually only one reason why we head to the West side. Yep, you guessed it! The Southern Resident Killer Whales are back and we were all VERY excited to welcome them home!

A "superpod" is a phenomenon when all 82 Resident Orcas travel together, usually to get to one area- in our case come back into the Salish Sea! Superpod days are always my favorite, and even...