If you’ve been out on the water with Maya’s Legacy Whale Watching, you might have noticed that we love talking about whales. While it’s a big part of the job, we also love to talk whales even when we’re not on the water! This has carried over into a podcast called “After the Breach”, hosted by two of our professional guides and whale watch captains, Jeff Friedman and Sara Shimazu. The two were out on the water in Haro Strait one summer evening when they first discussed the possibility of a podcast. It was just an offhand comment at first, but it came up time and again as they traveled to see w ..read more

We were playing a hunch. Over the past week we had seen the reports from further north of a rare-to-the-area species of dolphin and had waited, and hoped, that they would come our way. Reports trickled in. First seen in Campbell River. Then Nanaimo. Finally, Saanich Inlet — it wasn’t close but it was somewhere within reach. We waited as windy weather blew through. A week passed and somehow there were still reports of them. When something as rare as this happens, sometimes you just have to take a chance. With a boat full of intrepid, hopeful whale lovers we departed with no recent word of them ..read more

Every time we leave the harbor, I remind our guests that we’re entering a wilderness, where anything goes.  Although we often have a general idea of what species have been seen on a given day, and what their general location is, I remind people that these are wild species functioning in an intense food web where every animal is constantly trying to find food or avoid becoming food.  We never really know what will happen out on the water on a given day.  Which makes each trip unique.  A glimpse into the lives of whales on that given day, in that given moment. Last summer, so ..read more

A Gift for Tomorrow. We are looking forward to seeing you once we’re on the other side of this, facing sunny days for long-overdue outings with our friends and families. Your support, past and present, means so much to us. We want to give you something bright to look forward to as our way of saying thanks! Whether you’re gifting one of our digital gift cards to your family, your friends, or yourself we’re offering them at a discounted rate of $99 per seat and they’ll be good for any time of the year. Whether your next visit is this year or down the road, we’ll be here to make it special for yo ..read more

For the last few winters we have traveled to areas around the world to learn about different whale populations. This not only gives us a better understanding of the whales we watch in the San Juan Islands, it gives us a deeper appreciation of the uniqueness, diversity and beauty of the Salish Sea. It provides a broader context to our local ecosystem and its wildlife inhabitants. With this global understanding we can provide broader education on our tours as well as better advocacy for the marine mammals and wildlife of the Salish Sea. This winter several of us spent time in Bremer Bay, Austral ..read more

Meet Odin! On several of our recent whale watching and wildlife tours, including our latest all-day tour, our passengers and crew have been lucky enough to see a new visitor (and hopefully permanent resident) to the San Juan Islands—a one-eyed sea otter dubbed Odin. Historically, sea otters were present in great numbers up and down the west coast from the Aleutian Islands to the Baja Peninsula. When traders discovered their luxurious pelts, with more than one million hairs per square inch, the species was hunted relentlessly until fewer than a couple thousand remained in just a handful of colo ..read more

We hosted our second all-day tour of the 2018 season on Sunday, June 3rd. We offer several of these extended tours each year and every one is a uniquely different experience. Although our daily whale watching and wildlife tours allow plenty of time to view whales and other wildlife, these extended tours are always an adventure that creates some extra space to experience special moments within the ecosystem at a more relaxed, timeless pace. We departed Friday Harbor in the morning onboard our brand-new boat, J2. We had several passengers who have been on every single one of our all-day tours o ..read more

A Trio of Transient Orcas One family of Bigg’s killer whales (also known as “transients”) has been frequenting the Salish Sea this spring and we’ve been lucky enough to see them on several of our whale watching tours over the past several weeks. The family is a trio of whales known as the T123s, which includes T123 “Sidney”, her 18-year old son T123A “Stanley”, and her 6-year old daughter T123C “Lucky”. Though they are a small family they are efficient and sometimes enthusiastic hunters—Sidney has been seen launching herself completely out of the water in pursuit of Steller sea lions and porp ..read more

Our regularly scheduled whale watching and wildlife tours are approximately three hours in length, which allows plenty of time to view whales and other wildlife around the San Juan Islands. Several times throughout the year we offer special all-day extended tours. These tours are always an adventure and each one is uniquely different. We hosted our first of four all day tours of 2018 on Sunday, April 22nd. We left Friday Harbor in the morning onboard our brand-new boat, J2, along with a wonderful group of new guests, old friends and plenty of food and drink to get us through the day. Consiste ..read more

One of the most recognized and loved families of Bigg’s killer whales, the T65As, has a new calf! T65A6 was first seen in Puget Sound on April 10, 2018 swimming in the slipstream of T65A, surrounded by older siblings. The calf appeared to be only days old when first seen and it was only a few days later that the family made an appearance in the San Juan Islands. Guests and crew on our whale watching and wildlife tour on Sunday, April 15th, 2018 were treated to an extraordinary visit with the T65As as well as the T49As (including approximately 6-month old, T49A5), the T36As, and the T123s. In ..read more