Welcome to the Whale Report Blog

Today we met up with 7-8 members of J-Pod on the southwest side of Mayne Island (Canada) headed north for Active Pass (48°50.93’N, 123°20.55’W). They were resting, traveling in a tight-knit group, surfacing in unison for a few breaths, and then taking deep dives for a few moments. In this group we identified Blackberry (J27), Doublestuf (J34), and Princess Angeline (J17). We left them headed north around 3:30 PM in hopes of finding more whales south for our evening cruise.

Naturalist...

The bright and glorious sun was out for our wildlife tour this afternoon.  In addition to the warm sunshine, we enjoyed sights of Mt. Baker, seen through clouds off in the distance, and calm waters.  Right away we spotted harbor seals and two bald eagles on the northeast side of San Juan Island.  As we approached Whale Rock, three Northern Sea Lions (also known as Stellar Sea Lions) were observed.  Two females were hauled out on the rock and another was swimming around the kelp bed. ...

What a glorious day; the sun was shining, the seas were calm, and the wildlife was plentiful. 

Our tour began with a stop at Turn Point where a number of harbor seals were hauled out.  It is pupping season and several pups were observed basking in the sunshine next to their mothers or swimming alongside them in the brisk, 49°F water.  At Whale Rocks we found two male Steller Sea lions swimming between kelp patches.  The Sea lions would surface and take a look at us before diving...

Today we got to experience something a little different, but fun! It appeared as though the Southern Resident Killer Whales had left the Salish Sea for the day, so we went out looking for our other year-round residents, the Minke Whales. We headed south of Salmon Bank, eyeing each bait ball we passed, looking for that mysteriously small dorsal, yet long, almost ancient-looking body. We saw our first one a couple miles offshore (48.24.14N 122.57.78W) and within minutes saw another...

Lots of wildlife today! First we saw about a dozen harbor seals just south of Friday Harbor, hauled up on the rocks. Then, at whale rocks we came across some pelagic cormorants, more harbor seals, plus a huge male stellar sea lion, a very rare sight for this time of year!

Continuing around towards the west side of San Juan Island, we came across at least seven killer whales. Both members of J and L pod were around. We identified L-86 “Onyx,” J-16 “Slick,” and L-92 “Crewser...

A little "liquid sunshine" (what the locals call drizzle) did not keep us from a great wildlife tour today!  First stop was a collection of harbor seals lounging in that liquid sunshine on a rock outcrop near Griffin Bay.  We were on the lookout for some new pups, recently born, as this is pupping season!  As we headed south out of Cattle Pass, we saw a large collection of birds including rhinoceros auklets and Heermann’s gulls feeding at the surface of the water.  Then we saw the...

Friday Harbor San Juan Island

The 3rd Annual. Gets better ever

y year!

In my post yesterday, I mentioned how I could not find words to describe how amazing our Orca encounter was. Well, surprisingly everything that I said yesterday can be applied to our afternoon trip today! There was another super pod of killer whales, but we didn’t realize this right away.

We departed Friday Harbor heading north, and did not have to travel far. We caught up with three killer whales just on the north side of Henry Island (48°36.720’N 123° 12.300’W). We watched...

On last night’s sunset cruise we caught up with two groups of about 20+ Southern Resident Killer Whales headed south in Rosario Strait between Cypress and Blakely Island (48°34.46N, 123°46.05W). They hadn’t gone far since the greeting ceremony earlier that day, but you could tell the excitement had worn on them. They appeared to be resting, moving at a steady pace in unison, only coming up for 3-5 breaths before taking long dives.

From what we had identified, it was members of L-pod...

I cannot even put into words how amazing, awesome, exhilarating, and fun this afternoon’s trip was. Seriously, words cannot describe the whales, but I’ll do my best share this experience. We left Friday Harbor heading east with reports of whales in Rosario Strait. This is the first thing that made today special; typically we travel north or south of San Juan Island, not east between the islands which is absolutely beautiful on a clear, sunny day like today.

We reached the whales...