Welcome to the Whale Report Blog

J pod surprised us today...those speed demons! The skies were clearing, the seas were calming and the Orcas were moving fast towards San Juan Island! A little positive thinking can go a long way (well maybe it was luck)....despite earlier morning reports of some 6 foot waves in the Straits and Orcas out of our range... by the time our 1pm trip rolled around the seas were settling and the whale report was promising! We met J1, J2 and many others as they crossed Haro Strait towards the...

Some days are just not like the others and sometimes the orcas do things that we just can not predict. Yesterday, members of K and L pods swam up San Juan Channel between San Juan and Lopez Islands. That was only the second time this season that they have done that, and we were there to see it. They made it all the way to Friday Harbor before they turned around and headed back south. It was a lovely, mostly clear day and with the orcas traveling in two large, close groups it was...

Well, I can't tell you what a treat it is to be headed off on a wildlife trip with no hope of seeing orcas and then you get "The Call". For the past two days we have motored up San Juan Channel, swung north around Flattop Island and then been alerted of another boat finding orcas. Yesterday it was transients in Canada, today it was residents at the south end of the island. Both days, we had already informed our guests of the bad news of no orcas, but of our intention to visit the...

The cloudy day today was more reminiscent of autumn, reminding us that fall is indeed fast approaching - but that didn't stop the whales or guests from enjoying the San Juan Islands in all their glory. But not to fear, I read a weather forecast calling for sunshine (at least during the day) tomorrow, meaning that summer doesn't seem to have left us just yet. What a fantastic summer it's been for whale watching this year and today was not exception!

Captain Craig, Naturalist Jaclyn...

A wonderful end to the month of August....lots of Orcas..J, K, and some L pod members were all traveling together this afternoon! Somewhat of a superpod. (Other members of L pod were at the south end of San Juan Island today). They had been moving along to the north, when we arrived in Swanson Channel, a waterway in the Gulf Islands they were just slowing down and gathering together. We watched a big group with lots of whales all busy socializing! Amongst the group were J26...

A foggy morning had one ferry very much behind schedule...but no worries....we are on "island time". Lots of Orcas out there today and they were in no rush! Nor were we.

On our way out I saw my 1st Stellar Sea Lion of the season! A big male, snorting as he surfaced and exhaled, swimming in Cattle Pass. I love these guys. A male Stellar can weigh as much as 2000 pounds! Just huge compared to our Harbor Seals which weigh in around 250-300 pounds.

J-pod, one of our 3 pods of...

"To everything, turn, turn, turn...", so they say and that is true of life here in the San Juan Islands. The indicators are small currently, but the times they are a changing. I saw a second Steller's sea lion in a week today, which means they are starting to wander back down here from Alaska. This one was probably another sub-adult male that was not that impressive to the females, so he is back in our waters to work on his physique so that he has more success next year.

These large...

Residents and Transients

We saw resident and transient killer whales today! This almost never happens, transients avoid resident orcas, but today they were about 5 miles from each other. We went north, to Point Roberts. Here we watched resident orcas. We had heard these resident orcas were members of K-pod. As we watched these animals we noticed a big bull. We identified him by his saddle patch, this male was actually L-78, and we also saw L-2. L-2 is actually L-78’s mommy...

Residents have returned to our waterways! After 2 days in the Strait and ocean, members of the fish-eating Orca community have made their way back towards San Juan Island. They were just off the south end...moving from Salmon Bank inshore towards Eagle Point and False Bay.

The fog was incredibly thick to the south, masking the Orcas, other boats, and even the island in a damp sock of white. Jeannette and I were the lookouts for Captain Craig....this was what I call "extreme whale...

There are two distinct types of orcas that frequent the San Juan Islands, transients and residents. Resident orcas are fish eaters and transients eat marine mammals. Today we saw transients, also known as T’s.

The T’s seem to specialize in pinnipeds. They behave differently than the resident orcas. They seem to travel in smaller numbers with usually about 3 to 4 animals. Travel more stealth like, vocalizing much less with an estimated 3 to 4 calls, especially when foraging....