Sea Quest's blog

Being the first company on San Juan Island to provide kayak tours using professional standards, we’ve seen a lot of copy-cat companies pop up over the years. They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so we should take some comfort in all of this mimicry. But we can't help but feel bad for the folks that end up on kayak tours using sub-standard equipment, poorly trained guides, and no emphasis on the educational opportunities that the marine environment so richly provides. Or worse yet, being sold on a "killer whale watching" kayak tour that visits places like Anacortes where whales are seen only a few times each month. It's difficult for someone seeking a quality kayaking vacation to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Some of these newer kayak tour companies are run by the motorized whale watching industry. While roaring around in their polluting power boats, they saw our kayaking groups silently gliding through the waters and opportunistically jumped into offering kayak trips, too. Kayak tour companies of this ilk are run by people who prefer motors over paddles and offer the kayaking equivalent of "pony rides". Lacking the knowledge of sound kayaking safety practices and rescue skills, some of these companies have approached us at Sea Quest to train their guides. Other kayak tour companies in the San Juan Islands have morphed into marketing operations for wineries, brewers, yoga schools, etc. Remarkably, there's even one old codger who leads "booze cruise" kayak tours and still hasn't figured out that wearing life jackets is an essential requirement of safe kayaking! 

Here at Sea Quest we are keeping pure and simple. We began as biologists and environmental scientists who were all avid kayakers from the very beginning. Some of us even started kayaking as a way to get access to aquatic environments for research studies. We are all dedicated to spreading the joy of kayaking to as many guests possible and consider it our mission to provide the best educational experience possible within the framework of a kayaking tour.

Join us on a "Kayak Quest for Whales” and see if you don't agree that we are passionate about kayaking, whales, and natural history and strive to provide the utmost quality in every thing we do. Others have certainly noticed - you can read their remarks in the testimonials published on our website. Sea Quest accolades include selection by National Geographic in their “10 Best Trips in the World for 2011” and USA Today's “World's Top 10 Adventure Bargains”. And take a minute to watch us kayaking with killer whales in some fantastic videos made for National Geographic TV and ABC News.

Reserve your San Juan Islands kayak tour today for an experience you will never forget!

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

Our last blog entry discussed the dangers from a new study that involves dart tagging the resident orca whales in Washington - the same friendly orcas we enjoy watching on our kayaking tours in the San Juan Islands. Despite widespread criticism, the NOAA research team darted the first orca whale on February 20. The target was J-26 (aka “Mike”, named after deceased pioneering killer whale biologist Michael Bigg) a 21 year old who is usually found close to his 40 year old mother J-16 “Slick” and two younger sisters.

The satellite tag, sporting nasty double harpoon tips, was supposed to allow continuous tracking of J-pod killer whales (an endangered family of salmon-eating residents) to learn more about their movements, habitat use and feeding behavior. The tag only worked for 3 days instead of the planned 3 months. Now Mike is cruising our San Juan Islands kayaking tour routes with two nasty holes in his fin that served no purpose and put him at risk of infection.

Again, we must ask why all this effort and money is being spent when we already know why our orca whales in the San Juan Islands are endangered: 1) destruction of salmon spawning streams and 2) toxic pollutants that drift in from as far away as China. Why chase, harass, and harpoon our friendly whales when the problems have already been identified? Click here if you wish to read NOAA’s justification. And click here to read to the top orca biologists criticisms and an interesting debate.

The agency that approved this study is the same one that has accused kayak tours companies such as ours of threatening the whales’ health by respectfully and silently drifting across the water’s surface in their company. Meanwhile, this agency has approved for use on our San Juan Islands kayaking tour routes the following: military bombs and sonar, bulk freighters, and commercial fishing fleets whose nets steal the orcas’ already rare food supply and put them at risk of drowning.

NOAA is a “scientific” federal agency, but they seem incapable of making rational decisions when it comes to the welfare of the orca whales they are legally responsible for saving. The reality is that kayakers are an easy target to scapegoat and serve as the perfect “red herring” diversion to what really needs to get done. Restoring damaged salmon streams is hard work, costs money, and often steps on political toes. But it’s long overdue and essential to our entire ecosystem.

Unfortunately, it seems we can’t rely on our government agencies in Washington to take a stand against entrenched financial or military-industrial interests. The fishing fleet allowed by NOAA to compete with killer whales for endangered salmon right in the heart of the proposed orca sanctuary is financed by big bankers. And the weapons-makers are always clamoring to test and sell us more of their deadly wares. We can only hope that NOAA comes to its senses soon and takes real and effective action to save our orca whales. The whales can’t wait much longer.

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

A new orca whale research project for the San Juan Islands of Washington has just been approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service, the infamous federal agency known for constantly blocking protections for marine mammals or bungling their conservation management. This study will directly impact the killer whales we enjoy observing on our San Juan Islands kayak tours.

This new study involves shooting metal tags that are known to cause major tissue damage and possible life-threatening infections. Our local resident killer whales have long been known to suffer mortality from common bacteria that should not ordinarily be lethal. The high level of industrial toxins that have been absorbed by our San Juan Islands orca whales is likely suppressing their immune systems and making them susceptible to minor injuries.

This highly invasive metal darting study is too risky for a mortally threatened and beloved population of killer whales such as we have in Washington state. It is better suited for a remote region where orcas are not struggling with industrial toxins and a decimated food supply.

In addition, our San Juan Islands orca whales are very trusting of humans and often swim right up to, or underneath, our “grouped-up” kayaks. Please note: Whenever orcas are present during our whale watching kayak tours, we stop paddling and form a very tight group to minimize our profile to the whales. We also move out of their path, but as the whales swim faster than we can kayak, close encounters are bound to happen whenever the orcas so desire! In any case, we always treat the whales with the utmost respect as they deserve.

After decades of peaceful interactions, do we really want to destroy the trust of our resident orca whales by shooting them with painful metal darts? This photo shows holes in the fin from a dart.

As a side note, the decision was made without consultation with Canadian authorities, an odd fact considering this population of killer whales utilizes Canadian waters as part of their home range. Here is an article from their perspective.

Finally, here is a great analysis with photos of injured whales and orca whale biologists speaking out against the unnecessary project.

Join a Kayak Quest for Whales from Friday Harbor, Washington

 

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