A new paper has come out indicating that Orcas’ evolution has been partially driven by culture. There are ten ecotypes worldwide. They each have different prey, look a little bit different, but most importantly their behavior differs between each ecotype as well. This stems from the fact that many of their behaviors are learned behaviors including hunting methods, communication, and socialization activities. The distinct ecotypes have developed different forms of a lot of these...

I don’t know if y’all remember the ‘90’s but I sure do. The biggest thing and maybe one of the more unfortunate things that I do remember are, of course, frosted tips. You probably remember these and have a general idea about how they are engineered into hair. You may even no be experiencing a wave of nostalgia as an NSYNC song plays in your head. But what you probably don’t know is that some marine mammals are still really into the ‘90’s…

            We started off this Sunday trip...

We pushed off from the dock today with a full boat, feeling chilly but hopeful. It wasn’t long before we got reports of humpbacks in Active Pass within the Southern Gulf Islands in Canada, so we headed north out of Friday Harbor hoping to get a look.

On our way out of San Juan Channel, we got some quick looks at some harbor seals and an adult bald eagle before we crossed into Canadian waters and heard some more good news – the pair of humpbacks we were approaching were Big Mama and...

We started off the day with hopeful reports of a group of transient killer whales just off of Victoria, BC. As we left the dock, we headed south down the San Juan Channel towards Cattle Point, the southernmost tip of San Juan Island. We stopped briefly to catch a look at a large group of harbor seals hauled out on a rocky bank only to realized that on the other side of the rocks was a large group of Steller sea lions, with a few California sea lions dispersed among them. The male...

It’s still not summer. Despite the past unseasonably warm weather, El Niño, and new predictions for this to be a La Niña year, late may has brought some grey weather and some sporadic showers, but great whales! Captain Mike, Alex, Sarah, and I headed south to head to the eastern end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca to check out the sea mounds over there. Sea mounds are kind of like hills submerged in water, and are great places to find groupings of plankton, tiny fish, bigger fish, and...

I do not take top five lists lightly. If I say a trip is easily in my top five of all time, you can be certain that it is truly special. Today was one of those days.

Captain Mike and I had an amazing day with our guests up in the Strait of Georgia and Boundary Pass watching Bigg’s killer whales and a lovely humpback whale as well! We started the day of encounters with the T123s traveling east in the Strait of Georgia. This family, consisting of three individuals (Mom T123 and kiddos...

Even though May is here in full force and it has felt like summer the past few weeks, it definitely isn’t summer yet. The salmon still haven’t starting running full force through the Salish Sea so it is still unusual to spot the Southern Resident Killer Whale pods. The J-16s have been seen from time to time with other members of J pod, but we believe that this is so they can keep their young calves safe in the more protected waters here. So in this time of the year we usually see...

It’s still our shoulder season here in the San Juan Islands. That just means a few things. First: there’s a higher chance of rain, but not to worry this past El Niño event with other meteorological factors has seemed to brought summer early to the islands with sunny, warm days, and second: the consortium of wildlife that we are apt to see is a little bit different… sometimes.

            Normally this time of year the Southern Resident Orcas are still out to sea, hunting salmon and...

Yesterday was another gorgeous spring day here in the San Juan Islands full of lots and lots of wildlife. This time of year we have been heading north out of the harbor for the most part as there tends to be much to look at in and amongst the smaller northern islands. Heading south, just means cruising some open water!

As we made our way south we were treated to sweeping views of all four of the main San Juan Islands. Here we only have four islands that are serviced by the Washington...

It was another hot one here in the San Juan Islands on Monday, especially for May, but that means were get a little bit more sun and after a long, grey winter that is okay sometimes. Captain Mike and I set out with high hopes and headed north with a wonderful group of folks. We headed so far north that we eventually made it into Canada, and soon there they were. You could see the blows first and then large, dark, shark-like fins slicing through the water as this family of Transient...