We had a wonderful day onboard the Odyssey today with families from all around the US celebrating Mother’s Day. We were treated to a special encounter when 2 humpback whales were feeding in the San Juans on their way north to Alaska. It appeared to be a mom and offspring, judging by the size of the larger humpback and how closely the two traveled, almost touching one another as they surfaced. A magical moment for sure when their flukes would rise out of the water and we could see underneath their flukes! Did you know that these whales are identified by researchers from their unique shapes and color patterns they have on their flukes? We took pictures today, so maybe we’ll be able to find out more about these whales. There is a website with a catalog of humpbacks that one can try to match their photos with. http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/abl/humpback/JuneauCatalog.htm These whales travel from Maui to Alaska!
Our other wildlife experiences were as magnificent as our whale encounter in their own way… bald eagles, stellar sea lions, harbor seals and of course, the exotic game animals that are on Spieden Island. We enjoyed sharing this day with all the mother’s of the earth! Debbi Fincher, Naturalist

What a great day to be out on the water with our amazing marine neighbors! I was excited to hear our Southern Resident Community was back in town; we’ve been visiting with the mammal-eating “transients” which is always fun, though our fish-eating “residents” feel more like close friends or family, so it’s great to have them back in town! And what a great sunny day for a boat ride! As we headed to the south end of SJI, we were fortunate to see a great variety of marine life. We spotted several harbor seals, including one eating a salmon, along with harbor porpoise, a bald eagle, and a Steller sea lion! We met up with residents who were reportedly spread out from Lime Kiln to the south end of the island. The whales were pretty far offshore, I wondered if this had anything to do with the large amounts of fishing boats along the shore. As we were watching, two whales surfaced in front of us, headed right for our bow! Captain Pete immediately turned off the engine, and we scanned the water in silence, wondering where they might surface. They had split directions, so K26 Lobo surfaced right along our starboard side, while the other female surfaced on our port side. How amazing to see Lobo so close! It’s difficult to get a feel for just how big they are when watching them, but the tip of Lobo’s dorsal fin being at eye level with our guests (and still growing!) really helped to put it in perspective! We moved along and met up with another group of orcas, and enjoyed watching them for a while. A female and a calf surfaced towards our stern, and while the angle and sunlight made it a bit tricky to ID the two, it appears they were L83 Moonlight and her calf L110 Midnight, her three year old son. The seas started to pick up a bit – those of us on the bow caught a wave! I guess you can’t see the whales up close without getting a little wet! Everyone was in great spirits thanks to the whales, and it was like a fun “interactive” tour! As we headed back in to gentler water, we stopped by Whale Rocks to watch the Steller sea lions hauled out. Amazing to not only see 11 foot long sea lions, but to hear them roaring at each other as well! Most of these males are likely bachelors who weren’t strong enough to hold down a territory and have females to mate with, suppose I’d be a bit grumpy too! Heading back to Friday Harbor we again saw several harbor porpoise, and lots of common murres in their dramatic black and white breeding colors. They’re like the penguins of the north! As we got back to the dock we all agreed, this was definitely a great day to be on the water in the Salish Sea!

Our residents were no where to be found today, but we heard there were transient orcas up north and were happy to set off to find them! It’s not often that we get the chance to see this ecotype – the classic “killer” whales. The gorgeous weather made for an enjoyable journey, and our guests got a great dose of a Pacific Northwest summer. As we neared Saturna Island, we spotted several harbor porpoise, all heading south – a smart move with the mammal eating transients in the area! Our first whale sighting was an unexpected minke whale, and in close proximate to the orcas! It must have known attacks on whales are extremely rare within the Salish Sea, and the only time it was documented the orcas were going after a gray whale, and they did not succeed. The transient group consisted of four members in a resting pattern, doing several short shallow dives followed by one longer deeper dive. Unlike the residents orcas, the transients don’t always swim in a predictable line so there was a bit of guess work involved in where they would surface. Fortunately Captain Pete’s experience and instincts were right on, and as we paralleled along side them our guests got several great views of this relaxed family group. The orcas were heading south, and so it let us stay with them for a bit longer, slowly making our way back to Friday Harbor. Eventually it was time to wave goodbye to the family and head home. As we were leaving the scene we saw a small harbor seal swimming around, apparently unaware of the danger in the area. Must have been a new pup – hopefully mom taught it about those dangerous black and whites! The orcas weren’t in hunting mode when we left them, hopefully they stayed that way long enough for our little harbor seal friend to get out of the water!

Transients are ecotype of orcas behind the name “killer whale” since whalers frequently saw them attacking larger whales and other marine mammals. Because of this they were feared, hated, and viewed as extremely dangerous to humans. Because of this fear, they were routinely shot at and killed. Watching this family today, swimming in a socially bonded formation with such ease and relaxation, it was hard for all of us to imagine why people wanted them eliminated from our Salish Sea.

Heather Harris, Marine Naturalist

August 2, 2010

Nature and wildlife are ever changing, so every trip out on the water is an opportunity to see something new, yet patterns emerge, yielding a little more understanding.
One of our trips took us to Canada, North Pender Island, where we found some J-Pod orcas, cruising right along the shore at Mouat Point. There was a strong flooding tide that they were using to go toward Active Pass. They showed how well their echolocation works to maneuver ships, ferries, boats, and docks, through some narrow areas!
And to find fish, as killer whales from J and K Pods having been spending the last few days back and forth, sweeping the west side of San Juan Island. We have seen the salmon jumping too! Awed to see 19 year old J-27 Blackberry with 1 &1/2 year old cousin? J-45? very active breaching and flopping on his back, as though trying out a new move or view of his world!
On another foggy day, K-21 Cappuccino and friends, seemed to rise from the mist right off of South Beach, for a few mystical moments going southeast then turning northwest, before being wrapped once more in the marine layer.
The ‘westside waltz’ is familiar, but one is never sure; are they going to keep heading north, or turn back one more time, keeping us guessing as to the best route to see them! Today we enjoyed not only a warm sunny summer afternoon, also going all the way around San Juan Island, a circumnavigation, where many marine mammals showed themselves! Harbor Porpoise, Harbour Seals, Dall’s Porpoise, and a Minke Whale off of the northeast end of the Island, zigging and zagging its way northwest! Orcas; J’s and K’s foraging off of False Bay, headlining our tour! We think we saw J-14 with J-45. J-17 Princess Angeline and family with the 3 mom’s and 3 babies all close together, making rapid twists and turns, really looked regal! Were they teaching the calves how to hunt? J-30 Riptide is one big 15 year old- he’s already huge and still growing. K-21 Cappuccino and friends are back hanging out with the J’s. Many marine birds on the water too; Heermann’s Gulls migrating through, (not so common anymore?) Common Murres, and a Kingfisher perched atop a western hemlock. We probably missed an Eagle sighting with our attention on the rest of the Salish Sea wildlife!

Caroline Armon, Naturalist

Today was one of those days where you have to pinch yourself, you feel so lucky and amazed to be living in such a wonderful corner of the world! We heard reports of orcas both way north of us, and south near salmon bank, so south it was. Though the sun was shining brightly over Friday Harbor, we knew the south side of the island was thick with fog, which might make spotting the orcas a bit tricky. On route we slowed down near an exposed rock that’s always home to a dozen or so harbor seals so our guests could get a peek at them, and try to spot a pup or two. We discussed the fascinating lives of our native, but endangered killer whales, touching on tough issues like the decline in their main food source (Chinook salmon) and the high levels of toxins found in our ecosystem and therefore the whales. Caroline struck up an interesting conversation about the historic killer whale captures, after learning that two of our guests actually witnessed the Penn Cove captures 40 or so years ago. Lolita, one of the oldest captive orcas, and only surviving Southern Resident orca of these captures, was taken from that very spot on August 8th, 1970. This year for her 40th anniversary, witnesses of this tragic event including our two guests will gather to share their stories, and come together in support for her retirement in a sea pen in her native waters. Today, we all got to hear a little bit about that history. Time flew by, and before we knew it we were approaching the whales, and most of the fog had burned off! J27 Blackberry was one of the first sighted and we watched him slowly cruising through the water, occasionally skimming the surface with his tall dorsal as he did semi circles, likely foraging for salmon. Our attention was soon stolen by a VERY outgoing little calf, who was breaching, tail lobbing, spy hopping, and rolling around almost nonstop. When we see adults breaching, we consider the motivation to be one of many possibilities – communication, signaling to the rest of the pod, cleansing their sensitive skin of parasites, or of course, excitement or play of some sort. Watching this calf, it was obvious to us all that this little one was just plain having fun! Though we were not able to positively ID this calf, or the other juvenile it was with, it appeared they were accompanied by 14 year old J32 Rhapsody. That’s about the age a female will have her first calf, so perhaps she was getting a bit of practice by babysitting those two youngsters! We were so caught up in all the youngster’s antics, that we were taken by surprise as Blackberry dove in front of our bow, headed right towards us. Our engines were shut off, and we fell silent as we searched the water for his glowing white skin. Sure enough, he surfaced right next to us! It’s such a very rare and lucky treat to get an up close encounter like that, and nothing can prepare you for it. He certainly took our breath away, as we got to see just how large this male is. What an amazing day this turned out to be!

Heather Hill, Naturalist

Another sunny day in the San Juans! Our excitement was high as we embarked upon our journey, hearing that there were whales both north and west of San Juan Island! As we headed north Captain Pete made the decision maintain our direction so that we could meet up with some residents near the Pender islands. It was J pod, headed down from Point Roberts – hopefully having found lots of salmon! First to pass us was Slick (J-16) and her oldest son Mike (J-26). Closer to shore was Shachi (J-19) Speiden (J-8) who can not only be identified by her saddle and the distinctive notch at the base of her dorsal, but also by the “wheezing” sound she makes when breathing! Next up came a rambunctious group closer to shore with several active juveniles! The were breaching, and splashing around like crazy! It’s awe-inspiring to see a large adult leap from the water, but when we get to see the youngsters do it, it brings about a feeling of fun and excitement to all our guests. We were so caught up in watching them, we didn’t even notice that Mike had doubled back for another pass along side us, as well as his younger brother Keet (J-33). I imagine Slick’s youngest, three year old Echo (J-42) was among the active calves. I’ve been noticing this year that she’s a very outgoing calf, with lots of energy just waiting to burst out of her! Our guests were intrigued by the idea that like human children, some are shy, while others (like Echo!) are more outgoing.

The whales may be the rock stars, but we love showing our guests our other amazing wildlife as well! On our way back, we stopped by Gull Rock, and saw a couple mature bald eagles, as well as a juvenile all standing on the rock. Along the water’s edge was a few harbor seals as well. The seals are right in the middle of their “pupping season” so we got out our binoculars and tried to pick out the small round babies. Along with the seals and eagles we also spotted some harbor porpoise! Thanks to our great guests for making this a unique, and as always – FUN – day on the water!

Heather Hill

July 16

I have a corny motto: Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, have few if any expectations, show up with a positive attitude, and sometimes magic happens! A recent day tested this when we prepared for high winds, lumpy bumpy seas, along with the strongest currents of the month. We had reports of orcas on the south side, but weren’t sure they would come our way as we headed north in more comfortable waters, sighting bald eagles, harbor porpoise, harbor seals, and marine birds along the way. As we rounded to the west, J-Pod families, with J-2 Granny, classically in the lead, displayed many of the behaviors we had been talking about, as if on cue! Our guests were delighted, and our timing spot on, for the smoothest conditions and seeing the whales! We also had quite a few children on board and since these killer whales are listed as endangered I asked a group if they knew what ‘endangered’ meant. One little girl thought for a moment and said “that means they need something”. What a great response.Yes, these whales need Chinook salmon, clean water, and our care and respect! Little J-45 capped off our trip with four consecutive breaches! The day was filled with hope and magic.
Caroline Armon, Naturalist

Today we had an excellent tour aboard the Odyssey. We headed south out of Friday Harbor down San Juan Channel against the tide. We saw lots of seals and sea birds on our way out to the whales. We were lucky to catch up with them before False Bay and we encountered the J’s. There were lumpy seas off shore which caused Capt. Pete to bring us in closer to shore. We saw several members of J pod milling around fishing and drifting with the incoming northerly current. We had a close encounter with a fairly large bull. We identified him as J-26 or “Mike”. All in all a wonderful trip with the incoming tidal current to push us back to Friday Harbor on time. A big thanks to the guests and staff of San Juan Excursions for giving me a great day on the water.
To be continued -Tim, Naturalist, San Juan Excursions

Name That Baby!

Well, today was one of those days that fall in the category of a 5% chance of not seeing orcas. The two groups that were known to be in the area headed out this morning and were out of our range by the time that we left the dock. That is okay though, with all of the babies that have been born in the past year and a half it is nice to know that they are all out there stretching their legs and building up nice strong muscles. With all of these babies running around it can be difficult to keep track of who is who, so the Whale Museum is soliciting name suggestions for four calves that were born in 2009. They are the sons and daughters of Princess Angeline, Surprise!, Polaris and Calypso and you can submit two names per calf for consideration. The final names will be decided by popular vote during the months of August and September and the people with the winning names will get free adoptions of their orcas.

So, from all of us at San Juan Excursions, to all of you name droppers out there, thank you and we will…

See You In The Islands!
~Tristen, Naturalist

Summer is here in the San Juans, and this week we’ve actually had the weather to prove it! It was a toasty 84 degrees as we left the dock today, and we were all quite grateful to have the breeze coming off the water to cool us down. What a perfect day to be out on a boat, exploring the protected inland Salish Sea! Our southern residents were coming down from Pt. Roberts to meet another group, and we’d kept our hopes high that they might continue south within our range. As it turned out, once the two groups met up they turned around and went back north, far out of our range, likely heading to the Fraser River in search of Chinook. Though we were disappointed, we spent a lot of time discussing the importance of this river’s salmon runs and hoped that wherever the orcas ended up, they were finding a feast! We continued on our journey cutting through John’s Pass and enjoyed the sites of camp Norwester, exchanging waves with a few happy campers hanging outside their tepees. We encountered harbor porpoise several times throughout the cruise, and watched as they did a bit of fishing in the riptides. Other exciting sightings included a bald eagle next to it’s nest, with a large fledgling sitting inside, several other bald eagles either perched on branches or soaring through the sky, harbor seals both hauled out and swimming along side our vessel, female mouflon sheep, and lastly but certainly not least – a pair of oyster catchers! Though there were no orca sightings, today was a relaxing and fun trip full of great wildlife encounters, and our guests left eager to join us again in the future!

Heather, San Juan Excursions Naturalist

Granny, J-2, stills breaches at 99 years old!! She showed us her power and place as the grand matriarch of J-Pod (and the whole Southern Resident Community of Killer Whales)today, as she lead the pod south from Turn Point. I wonder that she was communicating to the families to hurry up- catch up! Since the rest of the pod was spread out a mile or more, then they sped swam at about 15 miles an hour, porpoising, leaving wakes, until they reached Henry Island. All the families came closer together and slowed their pace as they went near shore right along the cliffs, probably hunting for salmon. Both of the 5 & 6 month old calves kept up with the fast pace. Nothing cuter than watching orca babies leaping up right next to their moms and relatives!

There was excitement among the guests and crew today as we left the dock, getting reports that there were orcas off the south end of San Juan Island, though we had no idea at that time what an amazing encounter we were in for! When we met up with members of our southern resident community they were porpoising across the channel towards Cattle Point. The guests were instantly wowed seeing the orcas come so far out of the water with each lunge. We naturalists are always looking for that perfect saddle patch angle since we know that’s what enables us to ID the individuals and therefore relate to them. The guests on the other hand are much more interested in seeing their faces, as that is how we humans are accustomed to identifying one another. So from right off the bat our guests were getting some awesome “facial views!” Once the whales got closer to shore along the south end, they started swimming at a slower rate, and we got to work identifying which families we were with. Our first group was new grandma J17 Princess Angeline, her daughters J28 Polaris and J35 Tahlequah, and their new babies J46 (~8 months old) and J47 (~6 months old). Along with being a first time grandma, Princess Angeline is also the proud mommy of her newest calf, J44 who’s a little over a year old!

We then started to see some foraging behavior between K16 Opus (who was trailing some kelp along her dorsal fin) and her son K35 Sonata. They gave us a nice view as they passed ahead of us. By this time J32 Rhapsody and J31 Tsuchi had come along side of us and angled themselves to pass right along the front of our bow. What an awesome sight it was, and for sure the highlight of the trip, up until that point at least! Once we thought it couldn’t get any better, K21 Cappuccino came towards us on our starboard side, surfaced twice quite close to us as he closed in the gap, then swam underneath us. Our engines were shut off, and the boat fell momentarily silent as our eyes searched the water along our port side, until we spotted his saddle patch glowing several feet below the surface. We were all prepared as he surfaced, and yet were still absolutely blown away by his sheer size, and the magic of being so close to such an incredible animal.

It was a warm and sunny day, though I think it would have still been a phenomenal trip even if it had been pouring down rain! What a great day to be on the water, and to share an afternoon with an endangered species in their habitat, on their terms!

Heather, Naturalist for San Juan Excursions