Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 04/17/2021 |1:00pm

What a fantastic day! It started off incredibly warm and sunny as the bright blue sky promised a great trip no matter what we ended up seeing.

Captain Pete and I jumped on the Sea Lion with our excited guests and boated out towards sea. Heading up the San Juan Channel, we passed Shaw and Orcas Islands and rounded the northern coastline of San Juan. Continuing back around, we headed south down the Haro Strait.

We started to see boats in the...

Olivia | M/V Sea Lion | September 7th, 2020 | 13:00

We left the dock today with no reports of whales in the area, a normal start with boats all leaving within the same hour out searching throughout the Salish Sea. Heading north towards boundary pass, we caught word through the Pacific Whale Watch Association of a family of Bigg’s Killer Whales on the Canadian side of north Haro Strait. Captain Pete decided to aim for that area in hopes we are lucky enough to be in the area with the...

Olivia | M/V Sea Lion | August 21st, 2020 | 13:00

What an adventurous morning on M/V Sea Lion braving the weather and circumnavigating San Juan Island! We started the trip with no whale reports, a very common daily occurrence, and decided to head north scanning the wildlife hot spots for any action in the water. We first stopped at the eastern side of Spieden Island where there were THREE Steller’s Sea Lions swimming in the water near the Bull Kelp reef. This was riveting! Not only...

Olivia | M/V Kestrel | July 24th, 2020 | 14:00

“No one will protect what they don’t care about; and no one will care about what they have never experienced.”

-David Attenborough

I do not even know where to begin with writing tonight’s blog. I have been a naturalist in New Zealand and the San Juan Islands for a total of 4 years now and have never had such a profoundly spectacular trip as I did this afternoon. We left the dock with no reports of orca in the area and decided to go see...

Olivia | M/V Kestrel | July 24th, 2020 | 10:00

We started off the trip by being one of the first boats out on the water for the day. That being said, we decided to start the trip by scanning some major bodies of water such as the Haro Strait. These tend to be hot spots for larger cetaceans and a great place to start. Additionally, we left the dock with a shore report of a potential Humpback Whale north of Lime Kiln Lighthouse. Unable to find this rumored Baleen Whale, we headed north...

Olivia | September 19th, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00pm

Today was such a treat all the way around. As Captain Erick, Co-Naturalist Sarah and I started heading north through the San Juan Channel with our passengers, we stumbled upon a rare surprise just south of Flattop Island- a Northern Fur Seal! We rarely get fur seals in our waters; in fact, this was Sarah’s first time in her six years of working here and Erick has only seen them once down in the Puget Sound. After taking in the...

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

Wednesday morning was an exceptional day on the adventure Kestrel trip. It has been a while since both Captain Pete and I have been on our zodiac and were equally excited to hit the water. However, we couldn’t get our boat up to full speed because just outside of Friday Harbor in San Juan Channel was a Humpback Whale! This was personally my first time seeing this type of Baleen Whale in the channel and we spent about a half hour...

Olivia | September 8th, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00pm

What a fun day Captain Sarah and I had with all our passengers on M/V Sea Lion! We started off the trip by heading north where we immediately began seeing Harbor Porpoises rounding San Juan Island through Spieden Channel. After taking a quick stop at Spieden Island to see Bald Eagles, Harbor Seals, and heaps of Mouflon Sheep, we continued towards Stuart Island where we ran into our solo Bigg’s Killer Whale, T49A3! This goofy...

Olivia | August 15th, 2019 | M/V Kestrel | 11:00am

My favorite trip thus far.

I cannot express the realm of emotions myself, Captain Gabe, and our 19 passengers went through on our 11:00am Adventure Tour. We heard reports early in the morning that our Southern Resident Killer Whales (J Pod) had returned to Haro Strait per Lime Kiln recording their dialect through the hydrophone. With a thick bank of fog south and west of San Juan Island, we decided to head around the northern side to...

Olivia | August 14th, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30pm

For our evening sunset, we received reports of Humpback Whales heading north through Swanson Channel in Canadian waters. Because of the far distance pushing our 3 to 4 hour time frame, Captain Pete and I agreed to head straight for that area in hopes to see whales before the sun set. We traveled north through San Juan Channel, dipped into Spieden Channel watching the exotic sheep and deer peak out into the southern side of Spieden...