Lauren | M/V Sea Lion | October 25, 2024 | 12:30 pm

One of my favorite things about San Juan Island at this time of year is the crisp fall air and the occasional crystal-clear skies. Yesterday was one of those days, where even Mount Rainer was shining as far as the eye could see. The morning whale reports were abundant… everywhere BUT in the inland waters around Friday Harbor. Captain Eric and I prepared the M/V Sea Lion for our long voyage ahead and set sail. We took a right out of Friday Harbor...

Olivia Esqueda | M/V Sea Lion | Thursday, September 19th, 2024 | 12:30pm

Today was such a fun tour bringing in all the fall vibes. We started off our trip by heading south through San Juan Channel, stopping briefly off Turn Island to see a Sea Otter floating around in the bull kelp reef. This gave us an opportunity to chat about how the increased sightings of sea otters in the last few years all circles back to sea star wasting disease. We love conversations showing how everything is connected...

Abby | M/V Kestrel | 2pm | 8/28/2021

Captain Eric and I headed south again for our second trip of the day, word of two teenagers still hunting around the Chain Islets in between Discovery Island and Oak Bay in Canadian waters. We first stopped for a “rock sausage” extravaganza. There were harbor seals aplenty on our way through San Juan Channel, their big globular eyes watching us drift past their rocky haul-out site.

Once we crossed the glassy Strait of Juan De Fuca, we set eyes on...

Haleigh | M/V Sea Lion | August 16, 2021 | 10:00 am

    What a spectacular whale adventure today! As we loaded up our trusty vessel the M/V Sea Lion we had a feeling we had some good whale sightings in store. We motored off to the south through the San Juan Channel before popping out through Cattle Pass on our way towards Victoria, BC. The tide was flooding through the bottleneck of the pass, causing some big chunky waves as we passed through. We swayed back and forth on the deck...

Olivia | September 20th, 2019 | M/V Kestrel | 11:00am

We love our Adventure Trip on M/V Kestrel! The great thing about it? High speeds which means further distances in our time frame! We started the trip by heading south through the San Juan Channel to see some Steller’s Sea Lions bellowing their burping noises all the way across the water and swimming about in the currents around Whale Rocks. From there, Captain Gabe informed us of some black and white whales very far away past...

Olivia | August 9th, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30pm

It was a gorgeous day on the water today as Captain Erick, Co-Naturalist Erin and I headed south with our passengers through the San Juan Channel. We caught word of a lone male Orca traveling near Victoria, B.C. and decided to make the trek southwest to see if we could view one of our favorite Bigg’s Killer Whales. On our way there, we passed heaps of Harbor Porpoises and bait balls, making it an entertaining trip through the Strait...

Jordan | August 14, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30 trip

Today was another hazy day which made the surrounding islands seem almost dream-like! As Captain Pete, Alexandria and I set out of Friday Harbor, we headed south down through the San Juan Channel, past Cattle Point and west towards the Canadian islands. As we reached Beaumont Shoal off the coast of Discovery Island, we found our whales!

Here we found a small pod of transient (Bigg’s) whales! The T2Cs were moving incredibly slowly at...

Today The M/V Kittiwake wasn't going to let a little thing like distance get in the way of seeing killer whales! Reports had Transient Orcas heading west near Discovery Island off the coast of Victoria, Canada. It was going to be quite the trek to get to these whales, but Captain Jim is never one to pass up on a challenge. On our way to the scene, we were able to spot some Harbor Seals, Harbor Porpoises, and even two Minke Whales. All this wildlife along the way would have made for...

The Southern Resident Killer Whales came and went today.  We hussled away from the dock with reports that orcas were veering offshore of San Juan Island heading westbound.  Concerned that we might not be able to catch up with them before running out of fuel (just kidding!), Captain Craig set a straight and swift course to intercept our aquatic brethren.  We joined the fleet half way between San Juan and Discovery Island.  What a sight!  There were whales stretched out across the...

Once again we turned our bow towards Victoria and Canada today. The orcas, J pod to be exact, were at the Victoria Harbor heading east in a resting pattern. Capt. Craig tried to give them some time to swim to us by stopping to view other wildlife, but the orcas were swimming too slowly and we needed to be making better time. So he jumped on the throttle and away we flew along the south end of San Juan Island and across Haro Strait. There were a few minutes of indecision when an...