Welcome to the Whale Report Blog

Today was another awesome almost autumn day.  Captain Mike and I headed North towards Spieden Island. We snuck around the north side of the island and soon saw a Humpback Whale fluke up! It was a fairly young one feeding in between Spieden and Johns Islands ever so lazily. We watched it fluke up a few times. As we get into fall more and more Humpbacks are heading south to their breeding grounds so we may see more in the upcoming weeks based on how hungry they are, the food...

It appears that fall is here, as the weather is constantly keeping us guessing. Rain? Shine? A combination of both within the space of 10 minutes? Sure, why not. That's what we love about our island home. And, staying true to the theme of San Juan Safaris (always embracing adventure and the beauty and unpredictability of nature!) we left the drizzly harbor this past Saturday with a decision to search for our whale friends down south. 

We cruised down around whale rocks, checked out...

Orcas are so amazing - they have one of the most complex social structures of any mammal species out there. We get to see this in action on many days out here, and some days (like yesterday!) we get really lucky. We were able to see members of K and J-Pod spread out along the west side of San Juan Island, alternatively foraging, traveling, and playing with each other. The viewings of these beautiful animals kept getting more and more exciting from the moment we arrived on scene. One...

M/V Sea Lion and her passengers witnessed some pretty amazing Southern Resident Killer Whale activity today! We had only to travel a bit south to Cattle Pass to catch up with a large group of J's and L's that were headed west (unfortunately, it looked like they were heading out of the Salish Sea through the Strait of Juan de Fuca). At first sighting, they appeared to be traveling rather quickly, spread out and sporadically slowing down to forage for their main food source, Chinook...

Today was a fairytale, a pure, Salish Sea, fairytale! Although weather conditions down south were a little bit iffy, with two foot chop and white caps through the Strait of Juan de Fuca and up Haro as well, M/V Sea Lion was headed north, where nothing could stop us! We had flat, calm seas, beautifully reflecting the clear skies above. The most exciting part was the favorable reports of resident orcas on the west side of the island, moving north. As we cruised up San Juan Channel on...

The last two days have been spectacular working on M/V Kestrel, and have truly made me appreciate the capabilities of the vessel.

On Friday Captain Mike and I took our guests over towards the city of Victoria to find a pair of humpback whales travelling out to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. WE enjoyed watching those incredible creatures surface and fluke-up, raising their giant tails in the air, as they traveled. Humpback whales are a fairly recent re-addition to the Salish Sea...

Things are certainly starting to change around our little island! Summer still seems a little bit hesitant to leave, occasionally poking it's head around the corner and reminding us of the warmer days of July and August. But September has arrived in full swing, bringing with it beautiful orange and red leaves, roadsides decorated with those that have already parted from their former branch homes, and plenty of foggy, wet mornings. 

These are some of my favorite times of the year up...

Today was a tearful one. It was Captain Pete and Naturalist Hannah’s last day this season, but before they left me all alone we had the best day ever. All three of us along with a whole boatful of great humans headed south today. We made it all the way to the Strait of Juan de Fuca to find the orcas. Today it was the Southern Resident Orcas that we were watching. These are the salmon eating orcas and their population is critically endangered. Today we saw two families of J pod. The J...

Let’s see…it’s Saturday on Labor Day weekend, which means the island is buzzing a little bit more than usual. Restaurants start to require reservations, ferries require a longer wait time, and we get to take more folks out on our boats! This buzz creates a wonderful atmosphere, since folks flock here to celebrate the end of summer and are in the mood to soak up the sun and enjoy themselves. And, as it turns out, it wasn’t just humans that wanted to congregate here this weekend! Some...

Another beautiful day in Friday Harbor, but we were excited to depart and hit the water to see what adventures we had in store for us today. The M/V Sea Lion pushed off the dock and turned south today, with reports of residents frolicking and foraging near the south side of the island. Although the sky looked a bit gloomy, the rain held off for us, and the sun even popped out to say "What's up!" a couple of times. 

This is one of my favorite routes to take on our tours, because you...