Welcome to the Whale Report Blog

This will be my last post of the season....we are now officially finished with all daily trips. My my how the summer has blown by! We'll still be running whale watching & wildlife tours for the next 3 Saturdays of October...the 10th, 17th, & 24th.

A wonderful way to end my season out here with Orcas still in the waters! A bit of a breezy day with whitecaps and chop, the wind out of the north, and the crisp feeling of autumn in the air. The Orcas were first seen coming south from...

All good things must come to an end and this is just about it. Today was our last weekday trip of the season. As of tomorrow, we will only be going out on Saturdays through the month of October and then we will be done for good. Do not despair though, the orcas will be back next season and so will we. In the meantime, here is the address of a blog that is both educational and entertaining and will satisfy your daily hunger for blog sustenance.

http://bitterendblog.com/

It is not...

What a season this has been. This is my first year working out on the boats and I love it. I always knew that I would be a good boat person and I am. I have turned into such a wharf rat, it is unbelievable. Even on days that I am not scheduled to be out, that is the only place that I want to be. At the end of the day, if there is still sunlight, then there is still time to be on the water. And it is not just the orcas that have made this such an outstanding experience, even...

To sum up yesterday and today's whale watching tours:
The Orcas are still here!

Yahoo! It's been a fabulous September for viewing our Resident Killer Whales.

Yesterday we met members of J & K pod a mile or 2 off of Eagle Point, San Juan Island. They were very spread out with frequent changes in direction...lots of foraging going on! Gulls were swooping in looking for scraps of salmon that the Orcas had left behind.

On our way back in we saw a Harbor Seal with a huge salmon in...

Just want to make a quick note about our trip today. Another successful day viewing our local resident killer whales! Capt. Bill and I were heading south to meet members of L pod who were reported off the southern side of San Juan Island.

We stopped to view a nice group of Harbor Seals basking on a rock near Turn Island State Park, when we heard the Orcas had turned and were northbound in Haro Strait.

Coming around past Roche Harbor, we met the Orcas off of Henry Island....they...

It was a long trip today, but well worth it. A small group of guests joined us on the M/V Sea Lion and enjoyed a tour of Orcas Island and the State Marine Parks to the north as we motored to Birch Bay near Blaine, Washington. That is the farthest northeast that either Jaclyn or I have been and it is always fun to find some new water.

Of course, it is all home to our resident orcas and they were cruising through life today near the Canadian border. The groups were small and spread out...

Luckily, we did not have to look too far today, although the orcas were being a bit cagey. Capt. Craig took us out of Friday Harbor at an exaggeratedly slow speed, because the Coast Guard had sent out a radio warning about a submerged house boat that was adrift in San Juan Channel. How something can be submerged and adrift I do not know, but we were on the lookout for it. That was just the distraction that we needed though. We were nearly to Turn Island and we had not gotten up to speed yet when...

Yesterday's trip....I just have to blog about this one! It was a warm, sunny September Sunday. The Resident Killer Whales (or Orcas) were moving south from Rosario Strait around Lopez Island. We came through Cattle Pass and were ahead of the Orcas, so we positioned ourselves offshore of the whales so we could parallel them in Haro Strait off the south end of San Juan Island. A tight group in the lead, maybe 6 to 8 Orcas including J1 (Ruffles). Love that big guy! Then a single Or...

Once again we turned our bow towards Victoria and Canada today. The orcas, J pod to be exact, were at the Victoria Harbor heading east in a resting pattern. Capt. Craig tried to give them some time to swim to us by stopping to view other wildlife, but the orcas were swimming too slowly and we needed to be making better time. So he jumped on the throttle and away we flew along the south end of San Juan Island and across Haro Strait. There were a few minutes of indecision when an...

It would be easier for me to list the animals that we did not see today, rather than to list the ones that we did. I think that the only sightings that we did not log were of the Titanic and the Loch Ness Monster. Jaclyn and I could hardly contain our excitement, which is to say that we completely abandoned all trappings of professionalism to run around the boat screaming, every time we saw something new. Capt. Craig insured that we saw all that we could today by monitoring the...