Sarah | 07/01/2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 01:30pm

The sun was shining and we had flat water as Captain Mike steered the M/V Sea Lion north out of Friday Harbor towards the Canadian Gulf Islands. We had a lovely and lively group of guests on board ready to find some wildlife!

As we cruised north we stopped to check out some harbor seals hauled out on the rocks around Flattop Island. These little pinnipeds are some of our most common marine mammals in the inland sea, with some population...

Naturalist Sarah | 06/29/2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:30pm Charter from Roche Harbor

Naturalist Piper, Captain Pete and I had distinct pleasure of hosting a family reunion aboard the M/V Sea Lion. On private charters we can always customize the day to best suite a group’s needs, and yesterday that meant moving the M/V Sea Lion up to Roche Harbor for a departure! We gathered our very excited group, talked a little bit about the wildlife in the area, and then departed the harbor. We shot...

Naturalist Sarah | 06/22/2018 | M/V Kestrel | 10:00am

What a whirlwind of a trip! Leaving Friday Harbor, Captain gabe and I had no reports of orcas… not unusual for our morning trips! Since we work with a spotting network spread out through the region, usually our sightings start rolling in as boats leave their harbors. We decided to leave our slip and head north through President’s Channel towards what we call the Outer Islands of the San Juans: Patos, Matia, and Sucia Islands...

Captain Mike, Rachel, and I boarded the M/V Sea Lion today with a great group of guests! Today there was a report of some Bigg’s killer whales just outside of Friday Harbor so as we boated into the sunny San Juan Channel, we headed north. Along the way, we came across a bald eagle’s nest, occupied by an adult and a juvenile which were peering down onto the shores of their island at a group of harbor seals which had made themselves comfortable on the low-lying rocks. We carried on and...

Jordan | June 22, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 noon

What an amazing day out on the water! Captain Mike, Naturalist Rachel and I voyaged out of Friday Harbor towards a report of whales traveling along the east side of Lopez Island. We traveled north up the Upright channel where we saw two bald eagles perching in trees near their giant nest! It was very cool to see this pair, mated for life, nestled within the huge trees that they called home.

We then traveled down the east side of...

Sarah | 06/14/2018 | M/V Kestrel | 02:00pm

M/V Kestrel is our newest vessel in our fleet of four, and she has consistently proven to be an amazing tool over the last couple year of use. Going into her third summer as a part of our fleet I am excited to see how we can continue to use this incredible boat to better our guest experience. We are consistently impressed by the smoothness of the ride and just the sheer distance that we can cover on this boat.

Yesterday’s tour was a great...

[Sarah – 05/26/2018 – M/V Kestrel –  2:00pm]

On our second trip of the day Captain Mike and I decided to head north out of Friday Harbor! There was beautiful water, and good reports to our north, which was for the best as the water conditions to our south had deteriorated. We loaded up our guests and took off!

Our first whale encounter was with a pair of humpback whales cruising the South Pender Island shoreline and circling out into Boundary Pass. These whales are usually solitary...

[Naturalist Sarah – 06/12/2018 – M/V Kestrel – 10:00am]

The whale watching has been great lately! We are entering what local naturalists are calling the “new normal.” The diversity of our ecosystem is shifting, and we are seeing that reflected most notably in our local orca populations. With a drop in our local salmon population we are seeing less and less of our Southern Resident killer whales in our inland waterways. Traditionally we expect to see members of J, K & L Pods from...

Tuesday, June 5, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 Noon

When we left the dock today there were no reports for orcas in the Salish Sea, so our plan was to head north toward Boundary Pass to see what we could find, but just as we rounded Point Caution to the north of our little town, the radio sounded off with great news! A group of Bigg’s killer whales had been sighted south of Lopez Island! Captain Gabe, naturalists Rachel, Mariana, and myself turned the boat around and headed south...