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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....

It was inevitable, but sad all of the same. Tonight was our last evening trip. We did not waste it though and we had a lovely group of guests out with us on the M/V Sea Lion. Even though there were no resident orcas tonight we still saw all kinds of wonderful wildlife.

As Capt. Pete toured us through the islands, we stopped time and again for harbor seals hauled out on rocks. Of course, there is always a method to Capt. Pete's madness and he was stopping at all of the places...

Boy, for being from Massachusetts, I sure have become acclimated to the Pacific northwest's 75 degree (F) weather! It hits a few degrees above 75 and I'm sweating. This is much to the humor of my guests, many of whom are coming from Texas, Florida (had some folks for Atlanta, Georgia, today), and other hot summer spots, who board the boats with jackets in tow. Today was like so many other summer days here in the islands this summer, hot and sunny! Due to what we like to call the "rai...

After last week's bit of rain and cooler temps, the temps are back in the high 70s here on the island. A bluebird day and a gorgeous view of Mt. Baker this afternoon just topped off our time with the whales. The L12s and a few other Orcas were out on the west side of San Juan today. The rest of the Residents were too north, coming south from the coal docks...a bit out of reach.

We met up with L41 (Mega) and his sister L77 (Matia). Orcas are identified by their dorsal fin and the...

Sunday evening.....Pete and I were crossing our fingers, with reports of the Resident Orcas moving south from the Fraser River into US waters, we were hoping the whales would be within our reach. The majority of all 3 pods of Orcas had been at the Fraser River all day, presumably feeding on salmon migrating back to their spawning grounds. It was yet another calm day, with temperatures once again in the high 70s. Off we went....

Luck was with us! Although the whales had changed from a...

Capt. Peter, Ashley and I spent the afternoon with "Spirit" and her boys today. A mother's love and authority are never in question and L22 gave a great demonstration of that. All was quiet and calm when we first arrived on scene. L79 "Skana" was doing his own thing and L22 "Spirit" was within sight, for us humans, but in her own space away from her son. They were moving at an exaggeratedly slow pace and "Skana" was above water for so long each time that he blew that we could see...

A couple more beautiful days on the water here in the San Juans! Last evening, on our sunset tour as Capt. Craig had hoped for, we were treated to a superpod. The Orcas of J, K, L pods had all convened in Haro Strait. There were whales spread out in small groups generally heading north when we arrived on scene. They did an 'about face' and in large groups moved south till they all had met in 2 large groups. Our guests were in awe as we watched this mass of Orcas all swimming...

In these vast, life rich inland waters you just never know what you are going to happen upon. Even when it is an orca. One of our fellow whale watch companies was off looking for minke whales when, lo and behold, there were orcas around. The first reports were of transient orcas. These mammal eating orcas look just like our fish eating residents, with just a few small morphological differences and a vastly different diet.

Capt. Nancy gave the guests on the MV Sea Lion the run-down as...