After a night of rain, I woke up this morning to still more rain, as it sometimes goes here in Washington.  But as the day progressed, the weather got better and better.  By the time our departure time rolled around, it was looking pretty good and sunny out here in the San Juan Islands.  From Friday Harbor, we headed north with word and hope of possible whales up in Canada by Active Pass.

After an hour of searching and a pass by a few Stellar sea lions, we started to see vessels off...

I know I have said it before, but I will say it again.  I love rainy day whale watches.  Not the gross, windy, perfect storm kind of days, but the days when everything is still and calm and you can see every bird, porpoise, and seal within five miles of you.  Today was one of those days.  From the second the passengers set foot on the boat today it felt like it was going to be an adventure.  I got lots of questions within the first few minutes of the trip and learned that among the...

Heading south from Friday Harbor, we had word that a potential transient pod was seen off Middle Bank and was headed further out towards the Strait of Juan De Fuca.  With the traveling pod in mind, we searched out in that direction.  After a about and hour and a half of travel, fifteen plus miles and some choppy seas, we spotted some whale watching vessels and then, at last, the orcas!  A pod of four to five unidentified transients were on the move, surfacing for several breaths and...

We started our adventure with a little rainfall as we left the harbor but within minutes the rain stopped and after heading south for a few more minutes, we found two harbor seals hauled out and resting.  After cruising just another 10 minutes south, we spotted some dorsal fins off of Cattle Point, and then more dorsal fins and then even more.  We had discovered a very spread out J-pod!  The pod was split up into several different groups, some of which were diving for extended...

Departed at low tide and headed south through Cattle Pass.  There was word of Minke's and J-pod out towards Port Townsend.  On the drive out we saw lots of Gulls feeding in bait, which is a good sign for whales.  We arrived on scene about an hour after departing the harbor.  As we slowly approached the area where the Orca had last been spotted a Minke whale took a breath straight off our bow!  It surprised everyone.  While we were still catching our breathes from the Minke encounter...

Wednesday arrived with sunny skies and the warmest temperatures of the season.  We departed a little early for our trip due to word of whales in the area.  We headed through Cattle Pass with the tide flooding against us.  As we cleared the pass and entered Haro straight Captain Craig pointed our bow south towards Partridge Bank.  But half way there we took a sharp right and headed up the straight as we spotted some Orca closer to our position.

We came on scene with just a couple...

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

All staff,

With a spectacular spring day, the MV Sea Lion and crew (Captain Craig and MikeO) headed north with our special charter of Western States Agency Policy Makers.

Ken Balcomb, of The Center for Whale Research, Kari Koski of The Whale Museums SoundWatch program and me were asked to describe in our view, the process that lead to the new NOAA rules.  We were asked how those new rules would affect the whale watching industry and how they might affect the...

There is only one word that could describe today.  Epic.

The sun was shining and the water was calm.  We headed north on a whim, taking the opportunity to cruise the scenic passes between Saturna Island and Pender Island.  We ended up slightly north of the Coal Docks and found ourselves amid Orcas.  At first I thought they were Transients.  There were two whales cruising west, then three, then a whole bunch more.  They were spread out to the east and west of us and we realized...

Monday found us out in Rosario Straight.  The wind was picking up and there was a little bit of swell and chop, but it didn't deter us from spotting a very spread out group of Transient Orcas.  They were headed south at what seemed like a pretty good speed. There was one big male about 500 yards from us and two smaller whales another 600 or so yards from him.  They had consistent, 4 minute down times and would surface even farther from us every time.  The wind made it a challenge...

I have to say that some of my best whale days have been gross, rainy days.  Today was no exception.

We made our way down the east side of San Juan Island and around toward False Bay.  It was one of those silent, glassy, flat water days.  No seals hauled out, no sea lions on our way south.  We passed a bunch of soggy Cormorants and saw a Bald Eagle sitting on the ground.  When we got closer to Lime Kiln we saw blows way in by the rocks.  Then we saw a few more farther north. Then a...