Transient Orcas and Humpback Whale. July 11, 2008.

Race Rocks Lighthouse at Sunset.

Steller Sealions at Race Rocks.

The four photo's above were taken by Ron Bates, MMRG.

Today we encountered two species of Whales, a Humpback Whale and Transient Orcas! The Humpback Whales were first sighted near William Head and moved west throughout the day. The Transient Orcas were the T30's and were first encountered mid morning and also moved west towards Jordan River during the day.

J, K and members of Lpod near Iceburg! July 10th, 2008.

Great Blue Heron

After a very blustery start to the day the winds calmed down enough for us to venture out this afternoon and we were rewarded with an exciting encounter with J, K and members of Lpod!

As we arrived on scene at the southern end of Lopez Island we observed several Orcas Porpoising (high speed swimming) and foraging (hunting) for Salmon. We saw several members of Kpod including L13 "Skagit", K27 "Deadhead", K12 "Sequim", K33 "Tika" and K26 "Lobo". Members of Jpod included J2 "Granny", J26 "Mike" and J28 "Polaris" amongst others.

Despite the windy weather it was a beautiful day to be on the water with members of the Southern Resident Killer Whales!

Superpod!! July 9th, 2008.

Here are a few pictures from todays encounter with all three pods, J, K &L pod:) The three pods came through Boundary passage and headed towards Turn Point this afternoon. The pods then continued traveling down the west coast of San Juan Island.

Resident Orcas all day! July 8th, 2008.

Orcas in the Sky

The pictures above of the encounters with the Southern Resident Orcas were taken by Ron Bates, MMRG.

Despite some thick fog all our tours today managed to watch the Orcas and our passengers came away delighted with the experience!

Resident Orcas! July 7th, 2008.

The above pictures were taken by Ron Bates, MMRG, from todays encounter with the Southern Resident Orcas.

Humpback Whale July 5th and JPod July 6th, 2008.

Krill in the water!

The pictures above are from Ron Bates, Marine Mammal Research Group, taken July 5th and 6th.