Welcome to the Whale Report Blog

The great weather continued today as Captain Jim, passengers, and I sped up along the west side of San Juan Island to meet up with a few L Pod members. As you might have read in earlier posts, L-22, Spirit, and her two sons, L-79, Skana, and Solstice, L-89, have been consistently found milling along the west side of San Juan this summer. Today was no exception!  They seemed to be the only show in town, since all the boats were out and about, including the University of Washington...

We headed south today and kept high spirits through the cloudy, cold weather. It wasn't long before we saw our Harbor Seals and Steller Seal Lion at Cattle Pass! The Stellers never cease to amazing me with their size! These guys are just huge, weighing in at almost two ton.

After watching the seals we headed out to find our black and white friends! When we caught up with them, Emily and I quickly identified the J-Pod members that we were watching. Our "Cookie Clan" was there...

With eager guests, Captain Jim and myself departed on M/V Kittiwake. As soon as we got out of the harbor area, our guests were scanning the tree line for Bald Eagles. We got to Turn Island and guests spotted two Bald Eagles sitting on tree branches close to the water. The guest that spotted the Bald Eagles was celebrating his birthday!
We headed to the south, toward Hein Bank. We had reports the J-pod was spaced out and as soon as we got closer we could see this was true. We spotted...

M/V Kittiwake, guest, Captain Jim, and myself departed Friday Harbor and headed north. Our guests got a great view of the Cactus Islands, Johns Island, and Stuart Island. We caught up with part of J-pod just off of turn point, which marks the most north western point in the U.S. Our guests got great views of the cookie clan, which includes J22-Oreo, J32-Rhapsody, J-34 Doublestuff, J-38 Cookie. This family group was also traveling with another two family groups and our guests were...

Heading north out of Friday Harbor, Captain Craig, Andrew, our eager guests, and I crossed the Canadian boundary line in search of the elusive K Pod. Up until two days ago, K Pod had yet to show their beautiful black and white faces in our region. Once across the boundary line, we met up with a few K Pod members interspersed with J Pod members. It was great to see K Pod out and about!

After we left the group of  J and K Pod, we decided to try our luck a little bit south where we...

Today, Captain Mike, a few quests, and myself headed up northeast towards Lummi Island where we intercepted J Pod steadily moving east. Like Andrew mentioned in yesterdays blog, the community has been anxiously awaiting the return of our residents pods and were overjoyed to hear of a superpod traversing through our area. The resident pods seemed to have split up by the time our afternoon and sunset trip rolled around.

However, that didn't stop us from seeing whales today! Earlier in...

The endangered population of Southern Resident Killer Whales that frequent the salmon-rich waters of the Salish Sea form “superpod” only a handful of times during the summer season. Three extended families (known as J, K, and L pod) join together and travel as one unit, making up only 82 remaining members. Superpod is characterized by a great deal of social behavior, including breaching, mating, and vocalizing. At this point in the season, we would expect to have seen all three...

Today's afternoon whale watching trip was a great example of all the wildlife we can see around the San Juan Islands. Around each corner we were confronted with a different species of animal! Not even 5 minutes out and the Harbor Porpoises were happily munching on herring and smelt in the choppy waters near Cattle Pass. Usually, Harbor porpoises are fairly shy around boats, but today they gave us great views as 10-15 porpoised simultaneously! Not long after that our boat was...

What an amazing trip we had today! The wind was minimal, the water was like glass, and the guests were fabulous. The wildlife was simply “steller” as well. In fact, we actually saw a male and female Steller Sea Lion on Whale Rocks at the south end of San Juan Island right off of Cattle Pass! Steller Sea Lions aren’t seen as frequently as our Harbor Seals and can weigh up to two ton! Aimee and I were quite pleased with the sighting.

After watching the Sea Lion, Captain Mike wanted to...

Two great trips on the M/V Kittiwake today. We had both an afternoon and a chartered sunset trip. The swell had calmed down from previous days, leaving us with calm, glassy water on our trips. Both groups got great views of Spirit, L-22, and her two sons, Solstice, L-89, and Skana, L-79. This family of 3 have been moving along the west side of San Juan Island throughout the day, continuously searching for that tasty Chinook Salmon that they love ohhhh so much. And it sure looked like...