Welcome to the Whale Report Blog

Today was a great orca viewing day. The whales were doing back dives and breaches!!! They were also traveling fairly fast. Both the guests and I very interesting to watch. Everyone on the boat was very impressed with J-pod.

J-pod is one of the three pods that make up the southern resident killer whale community. These killer whales are actually fish eaters, they do not prey on marine mammals. These orcas have been listed as an endangered species in both Canada and the United...

What a day, what a day! Sunday morning started with a morning downpour, but by 1 pm it was sunshine with clearing skies!

On our way around the island we stopped for magnificient views of Bald Eagles, both mature adults and immature subadults all in trees near a washed up Harbor Seal carcass. The eagles really are scavengers first, predators second.

Then we spent our afternoon on the northwest corner of San Juan Island in Speiden Channel with Southern Resident Orcas from J & L...

Some days you get to see whales and some days turn out a little differently. I had the opportunity to work on a different boat today and see some new areas of the islands. Naknek Diving was chartered as a water taxi and Capt. Kurt needed a mate to help with the trip; since I was available and eager to go, I got the job.

The MV Naknek is a wooden boat and is fitted up in a much different manner than the MV Sea Lion. As a dive boat there are racks for tanks and gear, a stove to...

Our evening sunset tours are very popular, but after tonight they are going to be the talk of the town. It is not every day that less than five minutes after you leave the dock you are with a whale. But on this night, that is exactly what happened. Capt. Nancy and I boarded our guests onto the MV Sea Lion for an evening cruise in the hopes that the Orcas that we knew were west of Victoria, B.C. would swim our direction. I had just finished giving the group some history on the...

We went to Whidbey Island, near the Whidbey Island Navel Base, to see not one, but two gray whales.

One appeared to be a bit larger than the other. Gray whales are amazing animals.

While there, we also saw some very cool Navy Jets flying right over us!!! On the way back we spotted a submarine... I had to take a couple of double takes but sure enough it was a submarine. After our submarine encounter we then headed toward Long Island and found a bald eagle.

On Whale Rocks we saw...

L pod was near False Bay (on San Juan Island) today.
L pod is one of the three pods that make up the Southern Resident Killer Whales. Southern Resident killer whales were listed as an endangered species in the united states in November of 2005. There are a number of threats to these animals, but two declining fish populations and contamination are the largest contributors.

Today we were able to identify L-78, Gaia, a male. We also saw a breach by what appeared to be a youngster...

It was a perfect day to spot and see marine mammals: no wind, calm seas, and overcast skies, so there was little glare on the water.

We left Friday Harbor with a report of Minke Whales to the south at Hein Bank. Hein Bank is a place where it gets shallow due to an underwater sea mount or bank...there's kelp growing here and plenty of places for smaller fish and animals to hide around. For this reason it tends to be a great place for marine birds, seals, and Minke whales to feed...

It was a beautiful evening and Capt. Craig, the guests and I rushed right out to be a part of it. Actually, we were rushing because there were reports of Orcas in the vicinity and they were moving away from us. We quick got the group on board and the MV Sea Lion under way and motored out of the harbor.

A small charter boat had followed two transient Orcas up the coast of Vancouver Island to Active Pass between Galiano and Mayne Islands, B.C. We caught up with them on the east side of...

The Puget Sound is a very biologically diverse inland sea. We have many species of marine mammals, birds, invertebrates, algae and more.

The most popular marine mammal is the orca, which is actually the largest member of the dolphin family. Today's safari included lots of bald eagles, porpoises, seals and bull kelp (brown algae).

Bull kelp is very interesting and important to our ecosystem. It is a primary producer, using the sunlight to grow and ends up feeding many organisms....

As spring advances towards summer here and the days become longer in the San Juan Islands, we at San Juan Safaris shift into our evening sunset tours along with the lengthening sunlight. This particular Saturday marked our first late tour of the season and it was a glorious one. The sun shone through a clear sky, but the wind made jackets a necessity, especially out on the water. As Capt. Peter maneuvered us out of Friday Harbor and I talked with the guests aboard the MV Sea Lion we...