09/22/17- M/V Kestrel- 2PM

Today we left Friday Harbor on a beautiful fall day, with a slight overcast and glassy seas.  We first got to see some harbor seals hauled out on some rocks off of Lopez Island.  We then headed to whale rocks where we got to see some Steller’s Sea Lions in and out of the water. 

As we were heading towards our orca reports for the day, we saw a big bait ball that intrigued us, so we made a pit stop.  We were lucky enough to see some minke whales lunge...

09/13/17- M/V Kestrel- 2PM

Our resident whales still seem to be sticking around!  We haven’t seen much of our resident whales this summer because of our record low salmon run, but today our guests were treated with the opportunity to see L pod. 

We headed down San Juan Channel and found the whales in Cattle pass.  When we first arrived we saw a few breaches and some other displays of social behavior.  The whales then shifted to a fast travel pattern while heading towards the...

09/11/17- M/V Sea Lion- 12PM

Today we left Friday Harbor with reports that our resident whales were still in the area.  We headed towards salmon bank, a common feeding place for the whales, to take a look. 

We came across the five females and juveniles that make up the L12’s.  The male of the family L41, was a little further South from the reset of the group.  It is not uncommon for the whales to spread out long distances for feeding in order to cover more surface area.   The...

[7/21/17- M/V Kestrel- 10AM & 2PM]

 J pod is still here!  We left Friday Harbor and headed East towards Rosario Strait, where the whales were hanging out pretty much all day.  On our way we stopped at a beautiful eagle’s nest on the northern tip of Lopez Island.  Eagle’s nests can get about 6 feet deep and ten wide wide and can weigh over 2,000 pounds. 

Once we got some good eagle looks we continued East towards Anacortes were we encounter J pod!  Most of our viewing was of the J38...

(6/29/17 - Sea Lion 1:30 PM Departure)

You couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day to be out on the water here in the San Juan’s.  We left the dock with reports of Southern Resident Killer Whales on the south side of San Juan Island, near False Bay.  We headed straight toward that report of whales and decided to look for other wildlife on the way back.  After a nice leisurely ride we made it to the whales.  Our guests were very enthusiastic about seeing the whales and getting...

[6/25/17 - M/V Sea Lion - 1:30PM] The Residents are back! Parts of J pod and L pod were both spotted and heard (on the hydrophones) this morning. This is exciting! The San Juan Islands are best known for the salmon eating Southern Residents and it’s great to hear that they are back at least if only for a little while. Captain Gabe, Rachel, and I set out with a great crew to go find them. When they are around they usually have a few distinct paths that they like as they search for the...

[6/17/17- M/V Kestrel- 2:00PM] It was a day to remember out on the Salish Sea! We departed Friday Harbor from San Juan Island on M/V Kestrel, a high-adventure zodiac-style boat. And holy smokes, within 15 minutes we were already upon some transient killer whales! Snuggled between San Juan Island and Lopez Island were the T65’s, a small family group that has been hanging around the San Juan Islands frequently. They were calmly traveling in a tight-knit group, breathing together in...

(06/17/2017 -Sea lion 01:30 pm Departure)

Today we left Friday Harbor only needing to travel about 10 minutes before reaching our first pod of whales! We first encounter a group of transient, or mammal eating orcas, on the Eastern side of San Juan Island.  These whales were specifically the T36A’s as well at the T65B’s.  These two families were seen traveling together throughout the entire day today and we were lucky enough to see them complete a kill and engage in some social...

Today we left Friday Harbor with the exciting report of J pod hanging around the San Juan Islands.  We headed around to the North side of Orcas Island where we saw a few Steller’s Sea Lions swimming around as well as a harbor seal.  We also got some great looks at a pod of harbor porpoise.  Harbor porpoise tend to be a bit shy around boats so it is always exciting when we get excellent look at them from our vessel.  We hugged the North shore of Sucia Island where we saw a bald eagle...

You know what people love more than whales? Nothing except more whales and maybe perhaps the idea of autumn as they drown everything in brighter earth tones, sweaters, and pumpkin spice flavoring, but today wasn’t one of those days it was a whale of a day. Captain Mike, myself and Alex headed north to search for the Southern Resident Orcas. We first spotted them around East Point on Saturna Island. This place is one of my favorite in the islands, the current get a little bit crazy...