09/25/17 – M/V Sea Lion – 12 PM

Just as the rain showers tapered off to a faint drizzle, M/V Sea Lion made her way out of Friday Harbor Marina south towards Salmon Bank off San Juan Island. Moving though San Juan Channel, little 5-6 foot harbor porpoises broke the glass-like surface before disappearing back into the water. We began our search for whales in the confluence of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Rosarios Strait. Suddenly, tiny rolling black and white bodies appeared ahead of...

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[Lauren Fritz, M/V Sea Lion, 08/27/17, 1:30 pm Tour]

Oh my goodness - another amazing afternoon trip out on the water today! We had an amazing encounter with a humpback...

[Naturalist Erick D., M/V Sea Lion, 7/30/17, 5:30PM]

On Sunday, our sunset cruise was one of the most beautiful sunsets all summer. Captain Mike and I took our group of guests south in San Juan Channel towards Cattle Pass and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We first stopped and saw some adorable Harbor Seals hauled out on rocks along the shoreline of San Juan Island. These Pacific Harbor Seals are the most common marine mammals in these waters and stay here year-round. Even so, I still...

[Naturalist Erick D., M/V Sea Lion, 7/19/17, 5:30PM]

We left from Friday Harbor on our evening tour with a whole great group aboard the M/V Sea Lion. Captain Mike, Sarah C., and I started our search south. We passed Lopez and San Juan Islands through Cattle Pass. As we motored along we passed many Harbor Seals, Rhinoceros Auklets, and Pelagic Cormorants swimming and playing in the dynamic waters in between the islands. We ended up motoring pretty far through Haro Strait and a...

[Erick D., M/V Sea Lion, 7/12/17, 1:30PM] Yesterday, Captain Mike, Sarah, and I took a full boat of eager folks out ot search for some whales. Sometimes the whales are a little bit harder to find than other days. Even though whales are massive creatures, even Humpbacks the bigger ones around here pale in comparison to the immense amount of water that they swim in. We headed south through San Juan Channel, out through Cattle Pass, and into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The strait is one...

Lauren Fritz, 6/1/17, M/V Sea Lion, 12 pm and 5:30 pm

I was happy as a clam this morning when I woke to reports that our J-pod friends were still hanging around the islands! Every day starts out a mystery, as it should. These wild animals can swim 100 miles in a day, so just because we saw them yesterday doesn't necessarily mean we will see them the next day. In fact, that's no indicator at all! We are at the mercy of these creatures and their travel patterns.

M/V Sea Lion had two...

Today we had the rare opportunity to view four different family groups of transient killer whales. When we pulled away from the dock, reports of killer whales in the Strait of Juan de Fuca brought us south of San Juan Island. On our way down, we encountered all sorts of wildlife, including Steller sea lions, harbor seals, cormorants, harbor porpoises, and even a minke whale!

When we arrived at where the orcas were last reported, we noticed that the group consisted of nine different...

Whoa, Friday Harbor! Are we getting a heat wave or what? Nothing beats summer here in the Pacific Northwest. Dry heat, and out here on the San Juan Islands, it typically doesn't rise above 72 degrees during the day. But the winds have shifted for a few days, and we've been getting some beautiful warm air blowing down from the north, bringing the temps up to about 85! Needless to say, it was beautiful out on the water, with barely a need to put on a jacket out on the water! While we...

Caitlin, myself, and captain Mike left our Friday Harbor location today to head to the West side of San Juan Island. There is usually only one reason why we head to the West side. Yep, you guessed it! The Southern Resident Killer Whales are back and we were all VERY excited to welcome them home!

A "superpod" is a phenomenon when all 82 Resident Orcas travel together, usually to get to one area- in our case come back into the Salish Sea! Superpod days are always my favorite, and even...

Well goodbye L-22s and hello Transients! I'm very excited for this new change of pace the last couple of days, but still sad to see our last Resident Orcas go back out the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We had the small group of eight transient Orcas come in yesterday and kill a Minke Whale and they were still around to watch today! I've never seen this group of nomads before and was just as excited as everyone on board to get some good views in!

Transient Orcas differ from our Resident...