With impending rain, Captain Mike steered the M/V Sea Lion north with Naturalists Heather and Emily, and guests in tow.  The goal: transient killer whales off North Pender Island in Canada.  A little Northwest rain did not dampen any spirits on board and before we knew it we were rewarded with great views of 7 transient orcas traveling southeast in Swanson Channel.  T137 and her offspring T137A, T137B, and T137D were traveling with T36A and her two offspring T36A-1 and T36A-2.  It...

Captain Mike, Naturalists Emily and Kevin, and guests on board the Sea Lion were lucky enough to see K Pod on yesterday's Whale Watch Tour!  This is the first tour of the year where we were able to view our Southern Resident Killer Whales.  K Pod, comprised of 19 individual orcas, returned in full to the waters surrounding San Juan Island.  This pod was spread out into 3 traveling groups, all headed east from Victoria, B.C. towards the west side of San Juan Island.  K Pod is...

Spring has sprung in the Pacific North West and everyone is ready to get back on the water!  With our first Whale Watch and Wildlife Tour in two weeks time, we are all hoping for a great season.  Recent predictions concerning salmon runs should contribute to another wonderful summer.  Canada is predicting up to 72 million sockeye salmon to return to the Frasier River this summer, which is far higher than the typical 3-4 million.  Chinook and coho salmon are predicted to return in...

Many animals call the San Juan Islands home.  From kelp crabs to orcas and finches to eagles the San Juans have and abundance of species.  With both ocean and land environments, birds of all sorts abound on San Juan Island.  Bald Eagles and Peregrine Falcons are two top predators of the sky.

Bald Eagles are well known as the national bird of the United States.  Bald Eagles mate for life and return every year to the same nest.  They even have the ingenuity to build a second next, just...

San Juan Island has seen just about every type of weather in the last week. Currently, it is everyone's favorite: blue skies and sunny! We are hoping this weather lasts. All of the sunshine is making it feel like summer is right around the corner. We are already gearing up for the season and taking many reservations for 2014.

While we have not seen orcas recently, there was a Grey whale that popped into Puget Sound to say "hello" earlier this week.  Grey whales are baleen whales, or...

J-Pod, and L-87, made an appearance in the San Juans this weekend. Vocalizations were heard over the hydrophone at Lime Kiln State Park Saturday night. As to their current location, some faint vocalizations were picked up on the Port Townsend hydrophone, but nobody has seen or heard from them sense. A group of possibly 30 transient orcas were spotted up in Canadian waters this weekend as well.

While the snow has turned to rain here on San Juan Island, the flakes are still coming...

Growing up in Oregon, I never saw Bald Eagles. While the osprey was ever present, the eagle never showed itself. This past winter when I was visiting Oregon, I saw many Bald Eagles. It was awesome to be out on the river, and see an eagle perched in a tree.

Eagles are making a phenomenal come back and it is ever present in the San Juans. With a number 4 ranking in population in the US, Bald Eagle populations in the San Juans are soaring. While eagles are still protected, they...

The whale watching season is coming to an end here on San Juan Island, and in the Salish Sea. The weather is getting colder, the days shorter, but that doesn't seem to have an effect on the transient orcas! When we left Friday Harbor, we headed south then west traveling off the shores of Victoria to catch a glimpse of some transient orcas. When we arrived on scene, the T46b group of five orcas were traveling close together. After waiting in anticipation for over an hour to see orcas...

The M/V Sea Lion left the harbor today with no whale reports as it was pretty foggy on the west side of San Juan Island. However, like many non-whale report days, it wasn't long before a sighting of the orcas come across on the VHF radios on Salmon Bank. I broke the news to our guests, which is always my favorite part, and we headed straight there!

When we got on seen, I quickly recognized the group of transient orcas as the same group we saw yesterday: T-120s. They were milling in a...

Yesterdays trip turned out to be pretty great! Lots of whales, wildlife and rare findings! We left Friday Harbor and headed for the west side of San Juan Island to catch up with the T-120 group of mammal hunting transient orcas, stoping along the way to see harbor seals and steller sea lions.

When we got to the orcas they were traveling at a very fast speed, probably chasing their prey. Just as I was telling guests how orcas hunt cooperatively and come together in a tight group...