I had the opportunity to learn about the Spring Whale Watching season from Denise and Captain Daniel Wilk of Eclipse Charters yesterday.

Here’s what Denise had to say:

We have a few transient Orca around this time of year. Small groups eating seals and sea lions. The resident pods start to arrive with regularity in May.

We will be open from April on throughout the summer. 1:00pm to 4:30pm PST is our new summer schedule. They took away a mid morning ferry. Quite a gap, so we are trying to make our schedule for returning people to the mainland on the 5:10.

We are also opening a new store office in Eastsound in early May. Next to the Nest in the new Windermere building. The used book store moved out. So we are remodeling the space and are excited to have a town outlet for retail and tours.

A little bit of info about their tour Saturday April 17, 2010

We did see 35+ Stellar Sea Lions as well as 60 to 80 Harbor seals. Eagles were on the rocks feeding on something good. There is a sitting Bald Eagle hen near the Landing now. Rhinoceros Auklets and Pigeon Guillemots, lots of Cormorants and gulls. We also saw some Transient Orca foraging off Victoria. Yeah!

Dan and Denise have toured guests all over the San Juan Islands for 20 years. To celebrate their 2o years, they’re revamping their website to provide more information to all of us. Be sure to check in here!