We journeyed north around San Juan Island today, first passing Spieden Island en route to Haro Strait.  Several mouflon sheep and sitka deer were feeding and resting on the hillside of Spieden Island.  Somehow they can carefully traverse the cliffs just above the chilly waters.  We circled exposed rocks to the southwest of the island where six harbor seals were resting.  We spotted at least one pup.  After we were south of Henry Island (48°35.33N, 123°12.53W) we began to see spray...

The weather was perfect: high around 70 degrees, clear blue sky, and very light breeze.  The only thing that could make it better would be a day with the Orcas.  Did you order up Orcas?

Yes, a large order, please!

Coming right up.

We ran north - through beautifully calm water, enjoying the spectacular scenery.  Mount Baker was a clear and crisp as I've ever seen it.  Along the way, we saw harbor porpoise, common murre, pigeon guillemot, and harbor seals swimming about.

As we...

Today we were watching a variety of wildlife on the south side of San Juan Island.  We observed between 10-15 members of L pod that were spread out south of False Bay and heading to the southeast (48°25.25N, 123°05.87W).  Five to six orcas were surfacing in a tight-knit group.  Three other individuals were at least 500 yards away to the south and east, but traveling in the same direction.  One orca breached twice; what an incredible splash!  We believe we spotted the L85 “Mystery” in...

And that we did today...

With no Orca whale reports in US waters, we decided to go for it today, extending our tour, to make the extra trek far north into Canadian waters to see our Southern Residents. We were one of two boats from San Juan Island to make the trip, and man was it worth it!!!

Headed southeast in the Strait of Georgia, we found the K13's whom were about a mile offshore, north of the coal docks, outside of Vancouver, Canada (48°59.37N 123°10.67W). They were initially traveling...

Herb Hartman, photographer, has gone out whale watching with us so many times that he is considered an honorary staff member.
Here are photos from his two tours, one at 1:30 and one at 5:30 from August 13, 2012.

Minkes today!

Although our Southern Resident Killer Whales were nowhere to be found today, we did have luck finding Minke Whales. Not just one, but two (maybe even 3!) Minkes were in the Salmon Banks area, on the south side of San Juan Island (48°25.33’N, 122°59.94’W). Just rounding the corner out of Friday Harbor, a Bald Eagle majestically perched at the top of a fir on Turn Island. On the way out of San Juan Channel, eight Stellar Sea Lions sunned themselves on Whale Rocks, while...

Killer Whales from both K- and L-Pods were headed north along the westside of San Juan Island. The whales were reported heading north from Lime Kiln State Park. We caught up with the leaders near Open Bay (48°34.824N, 123°11.685W) who were mostly members of K-Pod. We traveled with these whales to Kellett Bluff where we waited for the rest of the group to travel north. We saw over 15 whales as they cruised by. At times we were surrounded by whales as a few individuals were traveling...

Busy Saturday on the water today, but the whales didn’t seem to mind!!! Members of Jpod had spread out almost half the length of San Juan traveling south in Haro Strait between Lime Kiln and False Bay (48°32.15N, 123°00.87W). The first whale we encountered was Doublestuff (J34) rolling around and traveling amongst a few females enjoying the sunshine and family time.

The next group we came across was Hy’Shqa (J37) and her VERY new born calf J49 with Grandma Samish (J14)...

Exciting day on the water! Leaving the harbor under rainy skies, we traveled north around San Juan Island. Happily, the skies dried and the sun soon came out just as we caught up with members of the Southern Resident Killer Whales in Haro Strait. Traveling along the west side of Stuart Island and milling in the Turn Point area (first sighted at 48°40.67N 123°14.92W) were: Onyx (L87), along with Slick (J-16) and her calf, Echo (J-42), Mike (J-26) and Alki (J-36). Our next sighting...