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Traveling east between Orcas and Shaw Islands and then south along Lopez, we emerged in the Rosario straight.  Despite starting in beautiful and warm Friday Harbor sunshine, we quickly became encompassed in a cool low-lying fog bank (but still at least giving us 225 yards of visibility).  Looming off our starboard side was another whale watching vessel, stopped, watching, waiting.  With a quick radio call to them, we learned that they were waiting for whales off of their port side...

We took a long trip north today with reports that there were killer whales hanging around Saturna in Canadian waters. The ride out was beautiful. The sun was shining, there was a clear view of Mt. Baker, and the waters were calm and glassy. What’s even better is that the trip up was totally worth it; J-pod was in the area. We were able to identify Riptide and Slick amongst the individuals we encountered.

After what seemed like no time at all we were on our way back to Friday Harbor...

J pod was spread out along the southwest coast in smaller groups. The flag of American Camp waved on in the background as we encountered the first group of three orcas. It consisted of the mature male Mike (J-26) whose sea snake was present and the flashing of pink startled and confused the passengers. As we headed further north we saw a formation of four with whom we believed to have Granny (J-2) and Riptide (J-30) leading. The juveniles we passed along the way were continuously lob...

June 30 Pink Sea Snake by guest Erik Enstrom

Today was sunny, warm, and absolutely beautiful as we left Friday Harbor in search of the wildlife that calls the Salish Sea home. On our way out we spotted several harbor porpoises in all different directions from the boat. We also stopped to watch some harbor seals that were not only hauled out on rocks, but were swimming around and poking their heads out watching us watch them. Not too long after we found the big guys; killer whales were off in the distance! We watched some...

The sunny, clear day brought the Cascades and Olympics mountain ranges into full view as we rounded Cattle Point and headed up the west coast. We quickly encountered orcas which appeared to be feeding with thrashing and direction changes along with a few breaches and tail lobs. After being lucky enough to watch the unique behavior, we headed back south.

The glassy conditions of the water allowed us to easily spot over half of the resident Minke population, which had gathered in...

We headed south with word that there were killer whales heading towards False Bay. It was a beautiful sunny day; both the Cascade and Olympic mountain ranges were visible in the distance. As we rode past south beach we saw at least ten harbor seals bobbing their heads out of the water near shore. Shortly after, there were spouts in the distance. It was J-pod! After seeing the first spouts, dorsal fins came up from all directions. On male was identified as Blackberry. The pod was...

Today we left the harbor and went up over Lopez and out into Rosario Straight.  We were nearly to Anacortes, just outside of Burrows Bay, when we saw a massive dorsal fin slice through the water.  There were a couple of smaller fins in the vicinity and as we drew closer there was a huge explosion of water as an orca breached clear and landed on its side.  Another breach followed shortly after and we noticed that there were whales very close to the rock.  They were moving fast...

Our adventures today started off a little cool, cloudy and choppy as we traveled south towards Cattle Pass.  Along the way, we stopped for some harbor seals hauled out attempting to bask but then found others at the Pass being more efficient with their time (there was no sun for basking) hunting for food.

Around the bend, headed northwest into the Haro Straight, we began seeing intermittent identifiable black dorsal fins: looks like J-pod was in the neighborhood.  The pod was spread...

The gigantic dorsal fins of Blackberry (J-27) and Double Stuf (J-34) sliced through the flat water as we rounded Mouat Point of North Pender Island. The two males appeared to be feeding when they would pause from their northward travel pattern to circle one another as they powerfully taillob the surface. Double Stuf, in his early stages of maturity at the age of 13, still bears a curved and skinner dorsal from youth. A group of four orcas, which consisted of a very small individual...