Welcome to the Whale Report Blog

Yesterday, we had a long haul north to view the orcas with a backdrop of the skyline of Vancouver. So, after such a long trek, it was great news that the orcas were heading toward the south end of Lopez Island as the M.V. Sea Lion departed Friday Harbor. After a quick cruise through Cattle Pass we caught up with a group of quickly moving orcas heading up the south end of San Juan Safaris. Orcas can travel up to 30 MPH for very short periods of time, but we rarely see them moving at...

Reaching the middle of July, summer in the San Juans is really in full swing.  The marine wildlife are just as active as the many visitors that come from around the world.  It's almost a sure thing that we will see orca whales these days.  Today we spotted members of the J and L-pods near Eagle Point on San Juan Island.  As we neared their location we could hear the impressively loud blows of the orcas' exhale.  Large clouds of mist shot above the surface.  Captain Craig lowered our...

It was smooth water at the dock but word was out that the wind was blowing off the west side of San Juan and news of whales headed south closely followed that report.  In general it is nice and flat out here and we rarely have anyone get sea sick however when news of 3-4 foot waves comes in it tends to make us a bit nervous.  We headed off the dock with a boat load of excited folks who we warned that it could get rocky out there and to be prepared. It was a beautiful ride as we went...

I do not know what has the orcas so wound up this season, but I have seen more breaches in the past week than I saw all of last season.  I love that they are being so enthusiastic and since it always seems to be paired with aggressive feeding I would like to think that this means that we are having an extraordinary return of salmon.  I expect this sort of behavior from the calves and juveniles, but there have been some monster shows of aerial acrobatics from the adults as well.  A...

Travel and  Leisure Names San Juan Islands  #4 for Top Islands of Continental U.S. and Canada Friday Harbor, Wash. – Travel + Leisure Magazine has just announced its 2010 World’s Best Awards, ranking the San Juan Islands #4 on its list of Top Islands in the Continental U.S. and Canada. The rankings (in order) are: Mount Desert Island, Maine; Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia; Vancouver Island, British Columbia; San Juan Islands, Washington and Prince Edward Island, Canada. The magazine...

Our afternoon trip returned with news that the whales were headed towards Canada.  Knowing that it can be a challenge if not impossible to reach them in areas like the Coal Docks and beyond the office staff worked quickly to contact everyone on the sunset tour and have them at the dock for an early departure. Within minutes of the boat arriving we loaded the evening passengers and quickly departed to get to those whales!

Cruising quickly through Presidents Channel we enjoyed the warm...

Who would think that a heat wave would hit Friday Harbor?  It has though and while this is not one of those melt-your-shoes-to-the-sidewalk kind of heat waves, it has had an affect on life here.  For one thing, there is no such thing as air conditioning on San Juan Island.  Maybe not in the whole of the Pacific Northwest, I am not sure.  Next, everything is in rapid bloom mode.  Flowers are practically faded before they can even escape the confines of their sepals.  Lastly, it makes...

With the sun shining strong today, the only place I wanted to be was out on the water. We walked off the heated sidewalks of Friday Harbor and made ourselves comfortable on the deck of the SeaLion. The warm breeze made for a very enjoyable ride.  Captain Mike informed the crew that we were heading to the west side of San Juan Island to look for our infamous Resident orca whales. Well, we didn't have to look very hard!  We spotted "Cappuccino" traveling widely spread out from the...

Naturalist Sallly with Whale Watching Guests aboard MV Sea Lion

SuperPod. That got my attention. I got into gear and called staffer Ellie to see if she would watch the office. I am out of here!
Needlesstosay, I had a wonderful three hour mini vacation on my own boat with an unbeatable crew.

Here are some not-so-professional photos of the 3 hours

Whale Watching Guests Photographing

Haying on San Juan Island

Ok. So the hay is not from the whale watching tour. But this is what...

This morning I awoke to my phone ringing at 9am. It was the Interpretive Specialist at Lime Kiln State Park- a superpod was right off of Lime Kiln. Last night, on the way home from our sunset tour, Captain Craig predicted we would have a superpod because he heard from the Canadians that 50 orcas were headed this way from Victoria. On our sunset tour, we had followed Ruffles and Granny of J Pod as they headed south down the west side of San Juan Island (Victoria is only 9 miles away...