Welcome to the Whale Report Blog

Working on a tip from other whale watching boats, Captain Mike, Naturalists Andrew and Heather, and a hopeful crew, departed the Friday Harbor docks and set course for the northeast tip of Orcas Island. I made it known to our guests that we were embarking on a unique cruise. The majority of the time, the M/V “Sea Lion” explores the west side of the San Juan Islands, as the southern resident killer whale pods are known to focus their activity there. But two days ago, the resident...

Captain Mike, Andrew and myself left our Friday Harbor location today and headed south through the San Juan Channel and into Cattle Pass where we hoped to encounter some great whale activity. Along the way we stopped to say "hello" to my favorite small critters that are known to inhabit the Salish Sea: Harbor Seals. The harbor seals thrive on our large tidal difference here which create the upwellings they navigate through to hunt. Their whiskers on the front of their face are...

Today the Sea Lion departed at 1:30 with Captain Mike, Naturalist Kevin, and myself. We traveled south to Cattle Point and along the way we encountered some friendly Harbor Seals. We spotted a group of ten of them with there heads peaking out of the water on our port side. Then we also spotted a group of six curious seals looking at our boat, on our starboard side. Traveling onward to the west side of San Juan we first spotted Orcas just south of Lime Kiln Lighthouse. We got a...

Unlike yesterdays tumultuous seas, it was a rather pleasant day on the water. The sun came out, and was quickly followed by sightings of J Pod. Soon after heading north out of Friday Harbor, we met up with Granny of J Pod, near Open Bay. Captain Mike, Naturalist Kevin, Naturalist Heather, and myself stuck around to watch Granny for a bit, but she was foraging at a brisk pace so we decided to check out some of her more playful family members further south.
Once we got closer, we were...

Our guests braved high seas today as we crossed the exposed Eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca in search of the not-so-elusive killer whale. Lately the endangered southern resident population of killer whales have been following their relatively predictable summer activity of salmon fishing on the west side of the San Juan Islands.

We first encountered these whales south of Victoria. Despite the high wind and confused sea state, J and L pod were grouped tightly and displaying resting...

The day started off great! As we headed out into the San Juan Channel, Captain Mike, Naturalist Kevin and myself along with our eager guest came across our local Harbor Seals feeding in the amazing tidal rips that develop in the Cattle Pass area. We saw close to a hundred Harbor Seals!

From there, we heading out through Cattle Pass were we encountered at least a half dozen Minke whales. Minke whales are approximately 25-30 feet long and feed in the shallower waters off the south end...

Heading out of Friday Harbor, we zipped out towards Salmon Bank, where reports of J Pod and a few L's were hanging out. Captain Jim and myself were able to make great time out to the whales since we were riding out in style in the Kittiwake, our original San Juan Safaris boat! Kittiwake is a great boat to get a very personalized and scenic view of the whales. This trip only emphasized that point. Our guests, along with the crew, were extremely surprised when Blackberry, J-27, and a...

We left our Friday Harbor location today, hoping for a great day with the whales in the Salish Sea. We headed south towards Cattle Pass where we saw dozens of harbor seals having a great time foraging. From there, we headed into the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Haro Strait off the south end of San Juan Island where we encountered the L-12's, a smaller sub-group of the larger L-Pod (our resident killer whales). It didn't take long before we recognized L-41 otherwise known as Mega who...

Another wonderful day on the water! Sun was out and it was HOT. Captain Mike, Naturalist Emily, and myself went south out of Friday Harbor and then steadily made our way north along the west side of San Juan Island. While meandering along the west side, we first encountered a large group of bobbing seals in the water. After sitting in silence for a bit we realized our boat was surrounded by harbor seals! It was great to see them enjoying the crisp 46 degree waters.
After saying...

Leaving Friday Harbor we headed towards the west side of San Juan Island where, Captain Mike and myself, met up with a few members of L Pod. We were able to cruise up the west side of the island and get great looks at some of the mature males of L Pod such as Mega, Solstice, Mystery, Skana, and Spirit! The west side is an excellent region to spot Orcas because of the high density of salmon coming through that area.
On our way back towards Friday Harbor we took a small detour over...