Friday, March 24th, turned into a fabulous day on the water!  Captain Mike, guests aboard the M/V Sea Lion, and I were hopeful that the cool spring day would turn something up, and we were not disappointed!  During this early season, we usually leave the docks with no reports.  I did not let this fact discourage me, because we are members of the Pacific Whale Watch Association and know of all sightings in the area in real time.  I had my fingers crossed for cetaceans in the San Juans...

We had a wintery day out on the water on Monday. Captain Mike and I headed north into Canadian waters on the search for whales and wildlife! We saw many bald eagles scattered trough the evergreen trees and enjoyed looking for harbor seals hauled out on the shores. We motored around Spieden and Flattop Islands, marveling at how beautiful the greenery of the islands looked under the low clouds.

We continued on our search pattern north into Boundary Pass, crossing over the large...

Today Captain Brian and I had a lovely charter of three people on our newest vessel M/V Kestrel. This boat is pure fun, reaching speeds of up to 35 knots. Today was an ideal day for Kestrel: smooth water, sunny skies and whales in the area!

This summer has been interesting for our Southern Resident Killer Whales. They are specialists, meaning they focus mainly on one food source. Our Southern Residents focus mainly on Chinook salmon… actually 80% of their diet is comprised of this...

There have been some subtle changes in the Salish Sea of late. Common murres have been flooding in, little phalaropes are again congregating at current lines, and it seems that another Steller’s sea lion adds itself to the slumberfest at Whale Rocks each day. In the coming days and weeks other migratory waterfowl like loons, grebes, and scoters will arrive from northern breeding and feeding sites. We’ve recently ended our sunset tours because darkness was beating us to the docks. All...

With the grey clouds clearing Captain Mike, Tyler, the guests, and I left Friday Harbor heading north towards Speiden Channel. Just off the south west end of Speiden Island, we encountered a Humpback Whale mother and her calf! Humpbacks are sometimes spotted in the Salish Sea during their migration north. The San Juans provide a nice protected area for these huge travelers to pass though.

A short way a way, in the Haro Straight off of Sydney Island in Canada, we ran into two...

Great day on the water! After searching around for a bit, Captain Mike, Naturalist Andrew, and myself, caught a lucky break when we found 2 humpbacks over Eastern bank. These two seemed to be keeping close the the contours of the bank. This behavior could reflect their feeding strategies. Commonly, humpbacks will forage over continental shelves and sea mounts where productivity of krill is highest. Once the krill is spotted, Humpbacks have a really cool and unusual technique to catch...