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Bluebirds used to be a favorite of San Juan Island bird watchers as their bright colors and cheerful warbling sounds could be enjoyed near most farms, orchards, and woodlots. Unfortunately, these beautiful thrushes completely disappeared over large portions of their former range across North America, including Washington’s San Juan Islands.

Bluebirds were victims of the invading European starling hordes and were quickly overwhelmed in the competition for nesting cavities. Prior to the introduction of starlings, western bluebirds were formerly common breeders and migrants and uncommon winter residents of the San Juan Islands. Birding tours could see them migrating on the south and west sides of San Juan Island in fall and spring up until 1963. The last reported breeding pair was present in 1964.

Western bluebirds have returned to Washington’s San Juan Islands after a 40 year absence thanks to biologists of the Western Bluebird Reintroduction Project. For the past five years, they have translocated 45 breeding pairs of western bluebirds from healthy surviving colonies in Washington. The project includes the American Bird Conservancy, San Juan Preservation Trust, San Juan Islands Audubon Society, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and The Nature Conservancy of Washington.

The project's bluebirds have produced 212 fledglings with some returning to breed in successive years. In 2011, fifteen pairs migrated back to San Juan Island but had only fourteen successful nests. If spring weather hadn’t been so extremely cold, each pair would have successfully nested twice over the breeding season. “Fifteen pairs is by no means a large enough population to be considered secure” said Bob Altman, project leader with American Bird Conservancy. “So we are exploring ways to enhance it beyond the initial five-year period.”

Back in 1989 an ill-fated attempt was made to reintroduce bluebirds to San Juan Islands by Mark Lewis of Friday Harbor, Washington, the author of Birding in the San Juan Islands and birding tour guide for Sea Quest. His project involved inserting two dozen fertile bluebird eggs into donor nests of violet-green swallows. Unfortunately, the one year project failed due to weather conditions even worse than those of spring 2011. The miserably wet and cold spring prevented the foster parents from finding enough insects to feed any nestlings.

You can help bluebirds of all species anywhere in their range by putting up bluebird nesting boxes. These must be built to dimensions that exclude starlings from entering and evicting the bluebirds. Declines of bluebirds in many regions have been halted and reversed by local bird watching groups using nest box campaigns.

Thanks to the modern reintroduction project, western bluebirds in the San Juan Islands are now rare migrants and locally uncommon summer breeders with the best chances for finding them from February through October. Come join Mark on a birding tour of the San Juan Islands in Washington state and enjoy these sapphire gems yourself!

Bird Watching Tours in the San Juan Islands – Friday Harbor, Washington

July was another superlative month for killer whale watching kayak tours in the San Juan Islands, near Seattle,  Washington. Orca whale encounters typically reach their peak in July and the weather is usually fantastic, too. This July did not disappoint – less than ½ of rain fell and high temperatures ranged in the 60-70s. Our out-of-state guests found welcome relief on their Friday Harbor kayaking vacations.

Orca whales were sighted by biologists in the San Juan Islands on all 31 days of July 2011. Killer whales move rapidly and are sometimes very unpredictable, so we didn’t find them every day on our kayak tours. We had our share of bad whale watching luck despite our best efforts. When we missed them, they were often heartbreakingly just out of sight around an intervening point or had just passed by our location an hour before we arrived! And a couple of days experienced very rough seas that made spotting whales nearly impossible.

Here is the July orca whale watching report for our San Juan Islands kayaking tours:

• We encountered killer whales on 88% of the camping trips – identical to last July!
• All 5-day San Juan kayak expeditions saw orca whales – again same as last July.
• All but two of the 3-day San Juan kayaking trips had excellent killer whale viewing.
• Every 2-day San Juan Islands kayak tours found the orcas.
• The camping trips saw either Dall’s porpoise or harbor porpoise on all but three tours for a success rate of 82%. The only two camping trips that missed the orcas were able to enjoy porpoises as their consolation. So they saw at least one species of the toothed whale family, even if they were the smallest species!
• The 1-day San Juan kayaking trips succeeded in finding killer whales on 56% of the trips in July. We expected about 10% better results for the day trips but this is where the bad luck bit us.

Here's some more news about our killer whales in the San Juan Islands from the month of July:

• J-pod spent the entire month in the Salish Sea and this is the orca family group we saw the most on our San Juan Island kayak tours in July.
• K-pod is the orca whale family we typically see the most in July over the previous decades.
• L-pod is the largest killer whale family in the resident community with over 40 members. They spent most of July traveling through the San Juan Islands split into two subgroups.
• Transient orca whales (the marine mammal eating species) were rarely seen as expected. They carefully avoid the resident family pods listed above. With the intense resident orca activity in July, the transients kept a low profile. These two species have not interbred for around 100,000 years so it isn’t likely they will be partying together again soon.

Food for the orca whales has been better than average again this year compared to most of the prior two decades. The North Pacific Ocean continues to be in the coolest part of its decadal cycle and this produces more salmon and higher orca whale fertility compared to warm water years. For instance, 3.9 million sockeye are expected to return to the Fraser River this year, whereas their parental generation that grew up during a warm water period was only 1.5 million strong.

Previous blog entries have discussed the importance of chinook salmon as the primary prey species of the resident-type killer whales. Orca whales largely ignore the other salmon species in favor of the larger and fattier chinook. The spring run of chinook in the Columbia River was about 237,000 compared to the 10 year average of 175,000. This is good news as the upper river spring run is considered highly endangered and is an important early season food resource for threatened orca whales in the San Juan Islands. Biologists reported that a relatively strong 181,000 sockeye salmon passed Bonneville Dam this spring.

The lower Columbia river fall run is less endangered and the anticipated return of 760,000 would be fantastic, but these predictions are notoriously inaccurate. If it turns out to be true, it will be well above the 10 year average of 566,000. 2010 witnessed one of the top 3 runs for chinook salmon since the Bonneville Dam was constructed in 1938, the fateful year when the majority of fish were blocked from their traditional spawning grounds and a massive multi-decade decline began.

The San Juan Islands of Washington are the best place in the United States for kayaking with killer whales and Sea Quest has the best record of success. Traveled by millions of migrating and resident salmon each year, the San Juan Islands are a critical habitat for the endangered orca whales.

Join a Kayak Quest for Whales from Friday Harbor, Washington

Photo credit to San Juan Island whale watching captain par excellence Jim Maya.

People who enjoy orca whale watching and kayaking in Washington’s Salish Sea rejoiced at yesterday’s news. U.S. District Court Judge James Redden ruled that the National Marine Fishers Service (NMFS) miserably failed yet again to produce either a legal or scientifically adequate plan to protect endangered salmon from extinction. This is the 3rd time in 10 years that the judge has ruled against NMFS and demands that they improve their shoddy efforts that are damaging salmon, killer whales, and our coastal economy. See our blog article on NMFS failings in killer whale management in the San Juan Islands.

The new ruling primarily concerns salmon stocks crucial to orca whale survival that have been 99% destroyed by federal dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. In deciding the case, the court wrote, “The history of (NMFS) lack of, or at best, marginal compliance with the procedural and substantive requirements of the Endangered Species Act has been laid out”… The court went on to call NMFS’ plan “neither a reasonable, nor a prudent, course of action.” “Coupled with the significant uncertainty surrounding the reliability of NMFS habitat methodologies, the evidence that habitat actions are falling behind schedule, and that benefits are not accruing as promised, NMFS’ approach to these issues is neither cautious nor rational.”

In finding the current plan’s heavy reliance on unidentified and uncertain habitat actions illegal, the court wrote: “Coupled with the significant uncertainty surrounding the reliability of NMFS’ habitat methodologies, the evidence that habitat actions are falling behind schedule, and that benefits are not accruing as promised, NMFS’ approach to these issues is neither cautious nor rational.”

Earthjustice, the public interest law firm that represented fishing and conservation groups in the case said, “Taking out the four dams that strangle the lower Snake River would bring millions of dollars from restored salmon runs to communities from coastal California to Alaska and inland to Idaho. Let’s reject the path that continues wasting tax money on failed salmon technical fixes and embrace a solution that could set an example for the rest of the nation.”

“The judge’s decision is a victory for wildlife, taxpayers, and the fishing industry,” said John Kostyack, Executive Director of the National Wildlife Federation. “Protecting Columbia-Snake River salmon protects fishing jobs, saves taxpayers billions of dollars, and helps preserve the outdoor heritage of the Northwest.” Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said “We applaud the court for keeping a solid eye on science and the law.

Zeke Grader, Executive Director of Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations said, “As this ruling highlights, the federal government has spent nearly 20 years spending enormous sums of tax money foolishly by doing all the wrong stuff. Facing the problem squarely, including potential removal of the four fish-killing dams on the lower Snake River, will create many thousands more jobs, revive the fishing industry, save billions of dollars for taxpayers, and lead in the development of clean, renewable, more efficient energy. What we need most now is for the Obama Administration to lead us to those solutions, not just bury its head in the sand in denial as has so often happened in the past."

Now we wait to see if NMFS can get their act together to save salmon and orca whales and prove that they create a new plan acceptable to the courts, concerned San Juan Island kayakers, and killer whale watchers in Washington state.

Join a Kayak Quest for Orca Whales in Washington's San Juan Islands Today!

Our orca whale watching kayak tours in the San Juan Islands of Washington began well this summer and here is our success report for June.

• Cetaceans (either whales or their small cousins the porpoises) were sighted on 80% of all our kayak tours combined.
• We encountered killer whales on 80% of the camping trips!
• Orca whales were sighted on 100% of our 5-day San Juan kayak expeditions.
• The 3-day San Juan kayaking trips found killer whales on 75% or 6 of 8 tours.
• All but one of the 2-day San Juan kayak tours found the orcas.
• All of the above camping trips saw either Dall’s porpoise or harbor porpoise with the exception of only two tours for 87% success.
• The 1-day San Juan kayaking trips succeeded in finding cetaceans on 74% of the tours in June, with killer whales seen on 41% of the afternoon trips.
   

Photo credit to to San Juan Island's best whale watching captain - Jim Maya.

Here are some observations and news about killer whales in the San Juan Islands from this past winter and spring:

• The three pods of “resident” orca whale families (the species of killer whale in the Pacific Northwest that specializes in eating almost exclusively salmon) roamed their greater home territory over the winter and at one point were seen as far south as Monterey Bay and as far north as the tip of Vancouver Island in British Columbia.
• During the “resident” orcas’ absence, there was an unusually large presence of “transient” killer whales (the species of orca that eats primarily other marine mammals) through winter and spring in Washington.
• Many pods of the transient killer whales converged on our Steller sea lion haul-out sites in the San Juan Islands. They focused most of their attacks on this huge pinniped that can weigh over 2000 pounds! Some harbor seals and porpoises were also taken by the whales.
• Dall’s porpoises were unusually scarce this spring, possibly remaining further offshore to avoid the large numbers of ‘transient” killer whales that were a constant presence in the San Juan Islands.
• The “resident” orcas gradually returned to their core territory off the west side of San Juan Island in late spring. J-pod was first as usual and became fairly regular in May. K-pod was particularly late and did not become regular until mid-June. L-pod returned as normal in late June.
• Transient orcas moved out of the San Juan Islands as the residents returned. These two species of killer whales do not socialize, inter-breed, eat the same prey, or use the same vocalizations. They are good at avoiding conflict and stay far apart from each other!
• J-pod and all whale lovers lost J-1 this winter. Perhaps the most famous and iconic of our killer whales in the San Juan Islands, Ruffles was the largest and oldest bull orca in the community. Well into his 50’s at his time of death, he sired more calves in recent decades than any other bull orca according to new genetic studies.
• Both K & L-pods each gained new calves to boost the resident orca community population to 88 whales.
• One of the L-pod orcas has spent the majority of the year with J-pod. L-87 may be permanently joining the J-pod family. A sub-group of K-pod orcas is also spending a great deal of time with J-pod.

Remember, our Sea Quest kayak tours explore the best place in the US for watching orca whales, near Seattle, Washington. Thanks to our experience, constant study, and dedication to our mission, our record of success is the best!

Join a Kayak Quest for Whales in the San Juan Islands of Washington

NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) claims their new orca whale watching regulations for kayakers and kayak tours in the San Juan Islands are based on science, but the overwhelming majority of field scientists who work with wild orca whales disagree. As do those who know orca whales intimately, such as our kayak tour guides who have been working in close proximity to killer whales for decades and understand their behavior far better than government bureaucrats who seldom leave their desk cubicles.

We agree with NMFS that sound pollution is a threat to orcas – see this previous blog article on this topic. But silent kayaks obviously do not pose this threat. And if NMFS says they are concerned about lethal sound levels, why did they give the US Navy carte blanche to use bombs and sonar in our marine sanctuaries and critical killer whale habitat!

Endangered Salmon are Critical to Orca Whale Survival in the San Juan Islands

We also agree with NMFS that endangered salmon stocks are critical to orca whales in the San Juan Islands – see our published articles on this, too. But we have yet to see NMFS make any headway in increasing the critically depressed salmon population. Salmon still remain reduced to 10% of their original population as are the herring that salmon and the rest of the marine ecosystem depends on in the San Juan Islands of Washington.

Under the auspices and mis-management of NMFS, both salmon and orca whales have suffered grievous losses. Thanks to lawsuits of concerned citizens, our federal courts forced NMFS to list salmon and killer whales as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Instead of doing their legally-mandated job, NMFS fought hard against the federal judges and wasted millions of tax payer dollars in legal fees. Worst of all, NMFS wasted a decade in legal wrangling instead of using that crucial time to help salmon and orcas.

NMFS gets failing grades across the board and should be fired from managing endangered marine species. How did a branch of the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (part of the Department of Commerce) get this job in the first place? It should be handed over to the US Fish & Wildlife Service, the agency in charge of handling all other endangered species - an agency with a track record of willing involvement and success. Save the whales and salmon by firing NMFS!

Watch Orca Whales from Silent Sea Kayaks near Seattle in the San Juan Islands of Washington

The new whale watching rules we discussed in our previous article apply to kayaks and most commercial and private boats. They are meant to protect the orcas from sound pollution that can interrupt hunting and cause stress in whales. Strangely, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) applied these new regulations to include silent sea kayaks while exempting freighters and military vessels. Obviously, these huge ships are the fastest and loudest in the whales’ habitat, and thereby pose the greatest risk of colliding with or deafening the whales. Military vessels are even allowed to use their new high-energy sonar that has been proven to kill whales and drive survivors from their home. Military ships were also given permission by NMFS to drop bombs and shoot torpedoes in the whales’ most critical habitat. It seems that NMFS believes that silent kayaks are more of a threat to the survival of orca whales than the most advanced military weapon systems!

Commercial Fishing Vessels Exempted from New Orca Whale Watching Regulations

NMFS has rightly concluded that orca whales in the San Juan Islands are not always capable of finding enough salmon to survive. Now that we humans have destroyed the majority of salmon spawning habitat, prey numbers are so low in some years that killer whales have starved and been unable to give birth. Our San Juan Islands kayaking tour route is one of very few places in Washington where salmon congregate in sufficient numbers to make hunting easy for orcas. (The concentrations of salmon along San Juan Island are why our kayaking tours are able to see orca whales on most days.)

In light of these scientific facts, we can only speculate as to why NMFS has decided to exempt commercial salmon fishing boats from the new orca whale watching regulations. Fishermen can drop nets directly in the whales’ path despite the risk of entanglement and drowning. They can net endangered salmon in the most critical killer whale feeding spots, taking fish away from potentially starving whales. In Alaskan waters, NMFS has given permission to commercial fisherman to throw dynamite or shoot orca whales if they dare steal fish from their lines.

I’m sure the hypocrisy of NMFS is apparent to anyone familiar with the situation. That federal regulators can condone throwing explosives at orcas in one location and propose banning kayaking with killer whales at another is simply beyond belief!

Join a Kayak Quest for Killer Whales in the San Juan Islands of Washington

Photo courtesy of Captain Jim Maya, operator of the best orca whale watching cruises in the San Juan Islands. 

We haven’t yet crunched the numbers, but it appears that new orca whale watching rules for the San Juan Islands of Washington have not had any impact on our killer whale watching kayak trips’ success rate this year. We will publish our June 2011 results in a few days so stay tuned our blog!
 

Most of our kayaking encounters with the killer whales are admittedly at greater distances this year, but there are no regulations that prevent orca whales from approaching us! Check out our YouTube Channel for orca whale watching and kayaking San Juan Islands to see a video from this June of two orca whale pods swimming right up to our kayaks while we rest in a kelp forest in a protected cove. Some of the orcas passed within 10 meters of our kayaks as they rubbed themselves in the kelp. Others breached less than 30 meters away! You can hear all the excited commentary from the guests and guides on the video so be sure to check it out.

 

New Rules for Orca Whale Watching on San Juan Islands Kayaking Tours

Kayaking tours, individual kayaks, and most other boats traveling the San Juan Islands need to be aware of new federal orca whale watching rules. The new federal rules double the approach distance to 200 yards, superceding the prior rule of 100 yards set by Washington state law. Kayaks must also clear a path in the whales line of travel out to 400 yards.

Orca Whales in the San Juan Islands are Endangered and Need Help to Survive

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the federal agency in charge of protecting whales and endangered marine wildlife, created the new whale watching regulations due to scientific research indicating noise from motorized boats impacts the whales' ability to hunt and causes stress. As biologists and conservationists with decades of experience around whales, we agreed with this and urged the new rules to be applied to all motorized vessels.

Unfortunately, NMFS inexplicably exempted the largest and noisiest vessels but applied them to silent sea kayaks! One wonders if anyone in this federal agency understands what a kayak is? When asked why the regulations were applied to silent sea kayaks, the agency was unable to provide any scientific reason or data to support the decision.

We will be discussing the new killer whale watching regulations for the San Juan Islands in another blog article that will appear in a couple of days. There are some serious problems with the new rules and the federal agency that created them.

Join a San Juan Islands Kayak Tour from Friday Harbor, Washington

Introducing our new YouTube Channel for orca whale watching and kayaking San Juan Islands. Enjoy watching amazing professional videos of orcas and sea kayaking in the San Juan Islands of Washington state.

Our first San Juan Islands kayaking video is a fantastic professionally produced short feature made for the National Geographic Channel featuring killer whales and our Expedition Director, Martine Springer.

San Juan Islands Kayaking Videos on YouTube

We have just begun posting high-quality videos to our new YouTube Channel titled "Kayaking San Juan Islands". We invite you to subscribe to Sea Quest's YouTube Channel to be informed when new videos appear. We plan to post a new San Juan Islands kayaking video every week this month. Please post you comments and impressions and share the link with your friends!

Share Your Kayaking Videos & Photos from the San Juan Islands

Have you considered sharing your favorite San Juan Islands kayaking videos and images with the world? Many guests of Sea Quest Expeditions have contributed beautiful photos taken during their kayaking tour vacations and we display these with your permission. Contact us today or go to Sea Quest's Facebook page if you have some great San Juan Islands kayaking videos or photos that you would like to share!

Orca Whale Watching & Kayaking in the San Juan Islands

It’s been a strange winter in the San Juan Islands of Washington state. Fickle weather and inaccurate forecasts have made it difficult to lead many kayak tours this season. Compared to the horrendous storms the rest of the country has suffered with, we have been fortunate to have much milder conditions in Washington and the Pacific Northwest. So it has been possible to go on several kayaking trips this winter in the San Juan Islands without putting on arctic clothing and make some observations of winter wildlife. Or it was, up until this week when we finally got a nasty blast from the north!

Fortunately, sea water temperatures in the San Juan Islands remain very steady, even during deep freezes, due to the strong currents mixing it up. So we haven’t expected it to have any affect on the whales and seals. While kayaking, we noticed that the harbor seals and northern sea lions seemed to be spending just a bit more time in the water and less on the rocks where exposure to wind chill has been extreme.

As is normal for winter, orca whales have been present on only a few days each month this winter in the San Juan Islands and finding them while kayaking has been difficult. Early winter salmon spawning runs usually draw more consistent killer whale activity further south in the Salish Sea into Puget Sound and this year has been no different. Many folks from Seattle have enjoyed seeing J and K pods hunting right from their living room windows or from the ferries. It’s always nice to see how much positive attention the orcas get these days when they are active around the city!

Our largest resident family of orcas, L pod, was recently observed in California’s Monterrey Bay where they were photo-identified by local San Juan Island killer whale biologist Ken Balcomb on a research mission. L pod traditionally roams the furthest of our three orca families and this is not the first time they’ve been found so far south. L pod could reappear in Washington at any time, but they are traditionally the latest pod to return to the primary summer feeding area along our San Juan Island kayaking routes.

Balcomb’s Center for Whale Research just released their population summary for Washington’s orca whales in 2010. The final year-end tally for our resident killer whale community is 87 whales. Of the 5 calves born last year, 6 have survived.

Sadly, the oldest and largest bull orca has been missing since mid-November and is presumed dead. J-1, known as Ruffles, was an iconic killer whale famous among whale watchers, kayakers, and biologists. His towering 6-foot high dorsal fin with its distinctive wavy edge made him easily recognized from afar. Ruffles made it to the ripe old age of 60 and is survived by his mother J-2 Granny who is estimated to be 100 years old, and presides as the matriarchal leader of J pod.

Photos courtesy of whale watching captain Jim Maya of San Juan Island.

Kayaking with Killer Whales in the San Juan Islands near Seattle, Washington

The federal government’s new plan to save salmon in Washington appears to be the typical politically-influenced poppycock that we’ve come to expect from the agencies in charge of saving salmon, orca whales, and our oceans. An intelligent salmon management plan for the Columbia River is critical to saving the threatened killer whales of the San Juan Islands and is mandated by law under the Endangered Species Act.

Salmon and orca whale advocates recently asked a federal judge to reject the plan as it ignores the most important scientific findings regarding orca whales and salmon in Washington:

• Salmon make up over 90% of the orca whales diet in the San Juan Islands, so a large population is crucial to a healthy resident killer whale community.
• Salmon in Washington are already reduced to about 10% of their historical population.
• Killer whales in the San Juan Islands die from starvation in years when salmon are scarcest.
• Both salmon and orca whales in the San Juan Islands are on the federal threatened list and any further declines could quickly spiral into regional extinction.

National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is the agency charged with saving both salmon and orca whales in Washington. Unfortunately, these are the same careless and neglectful bureaucrats who allowed salmon and orcas to become endangered already! Their previously proposed plans have been repeatedly rejected by federal courts for being ineffective, unscientific, and politically motivated. Although the Obama administration promised to put science ahead of politics when it comes to the environmental, they have failed us just as the Bush administration did.

Independent and government scientists are united regarding the critical link between salmon and orca whales in the San Juan Islands. UW’s Center for Conservation Biology did a multi-year orca study that involved collecting orca whale feces for hormonal analysis. They concluded that starvation and stress caused from salmon scarcity were the cause of the orca whales’ threatened status in the San Juan Islands. NMFS’s own scientists concluded that “Chinook salmon, a relatively rare species [today], was by far the most frequent prey item [for orca whales in Washington].”

NMFS also claims to have scientific data that shows sound pollution is harming killer whales in the San Juan Islands. Yet they don’t stop commercial fishing vessels from taking salmon in the favorite orca whale hunting areas when they could easily fish elsewhere. This harms orcas by stealing their scarce food, exposes them to ear-splitting sound pollution, and potential entanglement and drowning in nets. And NMFS just gave permission to the Navy to use bombs and skull-busting sonar in the whales’ home waters. Instead, they are targeting whale watchers and kayakers as the culprits! Can they be more willfully ignorant and hypocritical?!

Just how can the bureaucrats at the top of NMFS ignore the good science that we tax-payers funded? And why are these same bureaucrats considering outlawing kayaking from San Juan Island? There is absolutely no science to indicate that silent kayaks have any adverse effect on whales. Could it be that kayakers are an easy political target when NMFS is desperate to appear like they are doing something? They have received thousands of comments in support of kayaking from San Juan Island but NMFS doesn’t seem to be interested in either science or the opinion of the community as proven by their Navy bombing decision.

Let’s hope that the judge scraps the proposed salmon plan from NMFS soon. And that smarter people prevail when a decision is made regarding kayaking with whales in the San Juan Islands.

For more information, visit: http://www.wildsalmon.org and http://www.orcanetwork.org.

Go Kayak Whale Watching in the San Juan Islands near Seattle, Washington