I know I have said this a million times, but it was a whale of a day! First, we saw members of the J pod on the south end of San Juan near Salmon Bank.  Once again we identified J26 "Mike".  Then, we saw more whales, possibly members of the L pod, along the west side of San Juan around Eagle Point.  The whales were widely spread out in all directions, traveling in groups of about 5-10.  Every day is different and today we got a little taste of everything.  We saw spyhopping...

San Juan Safaris

I did the 'Whale Plane' from Lake Union Seattle. Forty five minutes on a fantastic small sea plane, with wonderful views. Went on smaller boat from San Juan safaris with only 12 on board. We left early as we were all on board to give us the best chance of seeing the orcas.We roared off very fast, which was very exciting. The naturalist aboard was very friendly and...

"Ruffles" and "Granny". Photo courtesy of Sandy Buckley

The San Juan Islands are famous as the setting for the Pig War and for their orcas.  Of those famous orcas, two are the most sought-after by visitors for sightings and as photo subjects.  They are J1 and J2, also known as "Granny" and "Ruffles".  They are the oldest members of their respective sexes in the Southern Resident population and our most well-known orcas.  Granny is estimated to be 99 years old, and Ruffles, who...

Today we ventured to Active Pass in Canada to admire those beautiful black and white creatures known as Orcas.
It is not very often we have to travel this far to see them. Thanks to the gorgeous weather, our guests definitely did not mind the boat ride. The longer boat rides are often very nice because we get the opportunity to know the guests on board a little better and delve into deeper subjects relating to the Orca population. Also we get to see many of the islands along the way and talk...

This just out regarding Salmon (resident orcas mainstay of food). It is interesting enough that I am putting up on our blog, which is usually reserved for  crew to report on their tour experiences.

Here is the link.  It is only about a 2 minute piece - give a listen?  http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kplu/news.newsmain/article/0/1/1690183...

NORTH BONNEVILLE, WA (N3) - Banner runs of salmon and steelhead are migrating up some Northwest rivers this summer. Not since dams were...

Each day as we cruise out of Friday Harbor, with hopes of seeing whales drifting about in our heads, I start the guests of with an introduction to the San Juan Islands and the all the wonders the islands offer. I often mention in this introduction that we as naturalists love questions. Not only do we have a passion to educate, we all have a passion to share the facts that YOU as a guest want to know. As an educator, I feel that people retain information better if it is something they...

Today was an exceptional day, amazing wildlife everywhere and beautiful weather! The animals seemed to get bigger and bigger as we continued our trip. We started by observing some harbor seals warming themselves on the rocks, these animals weigh about 300lbs as adults. Our next stop was the much larger Sea Lions that we spotted in Cattle pass. They have been hanging out in this area fishing for the past few days and it's been exciting each time to see them.  We were now on our way...

It has been a few days since we have seen L pod (or the Southern Residents in general)  and we can only assume that means they have gone off in search of food in the Pacific, but today we were in luck!  This  afternoon reports came in that they were headed towards San Juan Island. As we headed off for our afternoon trip we decided to go south around the tip of San Juan Island and over to false bay to greet them. Before we could get there we stumbled upon a stellar sea lion swimming...

Click on this link to hear Orcas Vocalizing -The Hydrophone on the MV Sea Lion August 2010

and see part of the whale watching tour

Yesterdays afternoon trip saw a little seen baleen whale - a minke. There are only about 18 minke whales in and around the islands. Our guests got very good looks at this whale in the afternoon both from the MV Sea Lion and the smaller MV Kittiwake.

Last evening on the 5;30 tour the resident orca whales were back in range and Captain Craig said they saw lots and lots of whales.  He thought possibly all 90 of them - not just in one spot of course.

This afternoon boat boats are again...