Sea Quest's blog

There are plenty of stories of dolphins saving humans. Authentic tales of dolphins assisting swimmers in distress are numerous. On the opposite side of popular mythology is the killer whale, the largest of all dolphins.

Orcas are often erroneously depicted as dangerous to humans. But transient type killer whales do hunt other mammals, if not people. They have been reported eating a variety of seals, sea lions, smaller dolphins, porpoises, and even the largest whale in the world - the blue whale. In the San Juan Islands of Washington the transient orca whales most frequently eat harbor seals.

We have decided to extend our price discount for our Baja Mexico kayak tours that we announced last week. The special sale is for our most popular Mexico kayak trip, the Sea of Cortez Blue Whale Triangle Kayak Tour, the world's best location to see a blue whale while kayaking!

For Thanksgiving Week we are announcing a special price discount for our Baja Mexico kayaking tours. The special sale is for our most popular Baja kayak tour, the Sea of Cortez Blue Whale Triangle Kayak Trip, the best location in the world to see a blue whale from a kayak!

The Leonids are arriving! Lucky participants of our Baja kayaking tours in mid-November could see a once in a lifetime show. The Leonids are famous for not only spectacular meteor showers but also “meteor storms”. Most meteor showers fluctuate from year to year, but the Leonids are particularly variable. Some years they produce only 5 to 10 meteors per hour. But at the Leonids' historical greatest in 1833, meteors were seen to fall "like snowflakes in a blizzard," with estimated rates of several dozen per second!

The cloud-free skies of Baja California make it the perfect place to watch the Leonids. The most reliable peak of the shower should occur around 1:00am PST on the morning of November 17th. You could see 20-30 meteors per hour if conditions are good. Some bursts might ramp up to 100-200 per hour if we are lucky. It is also worth checking again just after sunset on the 17th, and both the night before and after the anticipated peak.

The shower's radiant point is in Leo so the best chances will occur after this constellation rises above the horizon around local midnight. The number of visible meteors usually increases steadily from radiant-rise until Leo is highest, just as the sky is starting to get light.

The Leonids are remnants of Comet Temple-Tuttle. Whenever Earth passes through the orbital path that the comet took through out solar system we will see the debris rain into our atmosphere. Comet Temple-Tuttle is also responsible for our best summer meteor shower in August that we call the Perseids.

Another, less-known meteor shower is going on concurrently — the Taurids. They're sparse but usually very bright. If you see a slow, bright meteor heading away from the Taurus, that's a Taurid! You might also see a few sporadics that aren't associated with any major shower just as can be seen on any random night.

Join a Baja Kayak Tour and Enjoy Meteor Showers in the World's Darkest Sky!

An island of floating plastic garbage twice the size of Texas is trapped within the current gyre in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean. The trash originated from countries that ring the Pacific and is continuing to grow in size. The Algalita Marine Research Foundation has been studying the phenomenon for over a decade. Charles Moore of Algalita calls it the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and describes it as a "swirling plastic cesspool".

This past weekend, on our one day San Juan Islands kayak tour, we found an unusual jelly fish that we have never before encountered in this area on our kayaking trips. As you can see from the photo, it was stunningly beautiful with an amber bell, purple stinging tentacles, and pink oral tentacles. It was about 8 inches in diameter and 2 feet long.

Lonely Planet just created a list of the “World’s Top 10 Cycling Routes” and named the San Juan Islands to it.

A newborn killer whale calf has been confirmed in J Pod, one of our three resident orca pods that reside in the Salish Sea, which includes Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands of Washington state. This birth brings the population of J Pod to 27 and the total for all three pods to 87.

The new baby has been designated J-46, using the standard sequence used by biologists who track their population and biology. The calf has been seen with its mother J-28, a 16-year-old orca named Polaris.

Both mother and calf appear to be healthy. Firstborn calves have alarmingly high mortality rates due to toxic pollutants being passed from the mother to the calf via milk production. We wish this calf the best of luck and look forward to observing this calf's development during our San Juan Islands kayak tours this year.

Watch the Orca Whale Families on a Kayak Tour in the San Juan Islands!