Sea Quest's blog

Sea Quest announces a new Alaska kayak tour in Prince William Sound. Like our original Alaska kayaking trips, the new Alaska kayak adventure was designed to include the best that coastal Alaska has to offer: fantastic humpback whale watching, stunning wilderness scenery, and amazing glacial geology.

But the new Prince William Sound kayaking adventure offers some new twists. It adds the opportunity of exploring the best place in Alaska to kayak with killer whales. Also, the new Alaska kayak trip allows us to approach the face of calving glaciers much closer than ever before, and has hiking trails that lead up above the glaciers for spectacular views.

Another difference is ease of travel to the rendezvous site. The new Prince William Sound kayak tour rendezvous is in Anchorage, Alaska. This makes it easier to schedule flights to the destination and to find cheaper air fares. Anchorage also fits better into some kayaker's plans who want to extend their vacation to other parts of Alaska before or after their kayak tour with Sea Quest.

And the best news is that the Prince William Sound kayak adventure is our most affordably priced Alaska kayak tour ever! The fee in 2010 is only $2199 for a 9 days/8 nights wilderness kayak vacation. Sea Quest provides everything except your clothing and personal items. We provide sleeping bags, tents, food, water taxis, two nights of hotels in Anchorage, and great guides. More details are found on the Prince William Sound Alaska kayak tour webpage.

We are offering only two departures for the Prince William Sound kayak tour this year: June 19-27 and August 16-24. Sign up now before they fill up!

Go Sea Kayaking in Alaska - Glaciers and Whales!

The word "oldsquaw" might have caught a few eyes, and it certainly did on our sea kayak tours this week in the San Juan Islands. Oldsquaw is the original American name for the long-tailed duck, a sea duck that nests circumpolar in the arctic tundra. This elegant winter visitor from the far north acquired its original colorful name from its musical yodeling or ululating call,  reminescent of the emotionally-charged Algonquin cries heard by early Euro-American settlers. Alas, the old name is now considered by some to be demeaning and hence the recent change to a more politically acceptable, if boring, name.

Like most in its family, the long-tailed duck is courting at this time of year so their ululating cries, unique to all waterfowl, are heard ringing across the bays. The stunning males, with their bold plumage and elegant tails, are doing a lot of female chasing right now and putting on a good show for bird watching in the San Juan Islands. Very soon they will be departing for the arctic tundra to breed.

The latest confirmed birth, recorded on February 21 in L-pod, brings the “southern resident” killer whale community population up to 89 whales. Their population, believed to have been historically in the high 100s, was cut in half or worse by captures for marine parks, which ended in the 1970s. Pollution and declining salmon populations then caused declines in from the 1970s-1990s.

The killer whales' population plummeted to 71 by 1973, climbed to 99 in 1995, then plunged again to 79 six years later. The population rebounded to 80 in 2002, 83 in 2003, 85 in 2004 and 89 in 2005, and has seesawed around 88 since then. The three southern resident orca whale pods were belatedly declared endangered by the U.S. and Canada in 2005 despite years of urging by environmentalists and kayak tour companies in the San Juan Islands.

We are offering 2 for 1 pricing for limited time on a few of our remaining Baja kayaking trips this spring. Don’t miss the chance to save up to $1795 on the best Baja paddling trips this season. Call us for details and Baja travel advice.

Sea Quest Kayak Tours guides call for all aquariums to release their captive orca whales back into the wild.

Having considered the scientific facts, studied the orca whales firsthand for several decades on our sea kayak tours in the San Juan Islands, and using our accumulated knowledge as scientists, educators, and naturalists, we find the evidence to be overwhelming that orca whales are unsuited for captivity and maintaining them in aquariums is unethical.

Consider the following:

• Orca whales swim up to 100 miles a day in the ocean compared to less than 1 mile in captivity. Their massive trademark dorsal fins limply droop over in captivity from the lack of activity.
• Orca whales are acoustic creatures and see their world largely in patterns of sound. In captivity they are forced to live in echo chambers, similar to techniques used by interrogators on prisoners.
• Orca whales live their entire lives with the family pod of their birth and have a rich and complicated social life. Captives are stolen from families while juveniles and forced to live with strange whales that do not even share the same vocalizations.
• Orca whales live to be as old as humans in the wild, but in captivity they rarely live more than 20 years. Orca calves born in captivity rarely survive to adulthood.
• Wild orca whales have never harmed a human or been observed injuring other orcas. Captive orca whales have killed humans on several occasions and severely attacked other orcas, too.

Unknown to most whale watchers and kayak tour participants, killer whales in the San Juan Islands occur in two very different species. The two orca whale species in Washington are currently known as “Resident Killer Whales” and “Transient Killer Whales” until better names are decided on. Both species of orca whales in the San Juans apparently live throughout the world but more study is needed to confirm this.

Here are the main differences:

Resident Orca Whales – Live in large matriarchal pods of up to 50 whales, feed almost exclusively on fish, males are about 1 to 2 meters shorter, are very talkative, and relaxed in the presence of kayak tours and whale watchers.

Transient Killer Whales – Live alone or in small pods of less than 10 whales, feed mostly on marine mammals such as seals and sea lions, adults are about 1 to 2 meters longer with taller/sharper dorsal fins, and are much quieter (perhaps because their prey is so intelligent). This is the orca that people think of when they hear the words "killer whale" as they are the largest killers of warm-blooded prey in the world!

The good news is the most recent orca whale born in our primary kayaking in the San Juan Islands looks robust healthy. The bad news is this baby orca is the first-born of a very inexperienced mother, only 12 years old, who will need help from her aunt and grandmother.

More alarming is that in recent decades most first born orca babies die within a year. The prime suspect is a heavy dose of toxic chemicals that the mother passes to the calf via milk. Orca whales in Washington's Puget Sound accumulate man-made poisons such as PCBs throughout their lives and the only way to eliminate it is through milk production. First-born orcas get the biggest dose while later siblings get progressively smaller doses of toxins and have better survival rates.

If you are looking for some hot birding action in Washington, the winter bird population is hitting its peak in the San Juan Islands right now. The marine birds are especially abundant at this time of year and enjoying them from a sea kayak is a very relaxing and rewarding way of bird-watching in the San Juans.

Loons, grebes, cormorants, scoters, mergansers, harlequin & long-tailed ducks, shorebirds, murres, murrelets, guillemots, and gulls abound with each family represented by many species. Bald Eagles are at their annual mid-winter high of around 300 individuals in the San Juan Islands of Washington. Kayaking among this unique bird diversity is a special experience.

Much of this mid and late winter bird abundance is due to an influx of adult herring migrating through the San Juan Islands enroute to their spawning areas. The marine birds feast on both the adults and their roe once it is deposited in the shallows.

Another bonus of winter sea kayaking in the San Juan Islands is the quietude and lack of boating activity at this time of year. Although the orca whales are not often seen in the winter, sea lions are at their peak numbers, harbor seals are everywhere, and the river otters are easily seen during daylight hours.

The first baby orca of 2010 has been born to J pod on January 3, boosting an endangered population of killer whales that needs every birth it can get. The orca calf's mother is only 12 years old, raising concern for the survival of both the mother and her calf. Killer whales don't usually become reproductive until the age of 15.

In 2009 there were five births and three deaths among the “southern resident” orca families of Washington. Three of the new babies were born into J pod, the family of killer whales that we kayak with most often in the San Juan Islands. We are optimistic that this ‘baby boom’ in J pod represents a comeback for our local orca whales.

Look carefully at the photo and you will see new-born foetal folds and the distinctive orange color of a baby orca whale.

Amazingly enough, the National Marine Fisheries Service has a plan to ban kayaking on the west side of San Juan Island in the heart of the orca whale watching zone. Without the backing of any scientific studies that show kayaking with killer whales has any negative effect on the orcas, NMFS was planning to shut down kayaking on the west side of San Juan Island this year. Fortunately, they have delayed a decision as they are finally starting to understand the true facts now.