Elle | M/V Osprey | July 16, 2022 |12:30PM

We set out on a cool, cloudy day from Friday Harbor in search of wildlife. We headed down south past Cattle Point on San Juan Island and pulled up to Whale Rocks, off the western tip of Lopez Island. Here we saw a haul out of harbor seals as well as Steller's sea lions. While harbor seals are here year-round, sea lions migrate out of the Salish Sea. It's pretty rare to see them here this late in the summer so we were grateful for the chance...

We didn’t have to go too far to see amazing wildlife today! We started out of Friday Harbor heading North through San Juan Channel, making our way through Spring Pass in between Jones Island and Orcas Island. We got really great views of a bald eagle resting in an exposed dead tree surrounded by beautiful red Madrona’s. We continued North to search around a known harbor seal haul out spot, hoping to find the top predators that eat them (hint hint). The seals were nestled low on the...

Lauren | M/V Sea Lion | 6/14/2022 |12:30PM

Captain Erick and I left the dock with a smaller group today. It’s always refreshing to have a boat with only a few folks, as it gives you the perfect opportunity to better connect with your guests. With only 8 passengers aboard, M/V Sea Lion cruised out of Friday Harbor for a quick San Juan Channel crossing right into Upright Channel. We hugged the coast of Lopez Island before puttering around Ram Island into Lopez pass. While in Lopez...

7/9/2022

Helena

MV Kestrel

2pm

The adventure tour this afternoon went north up San Juan Channel, through Speiden Channel and off the western coast of Stuart Island where we encountered not one but two Humpback Whales! This duo was actually a mother and her calf and the two were taking long (10-ish minute) dives heading south in the Haro Strait. 

The population of humpbacks migrating to the Salish Sea every summer are coming to their feeding grounds here. They will eat up to 3,000...

Haleigh | M/V Osprey | July 9, 2022 | 12:30 pm

This summer is proving to be a successful time to view wildlife, and today we were able to see two of our largest marine mammals found in the Salish Sea! As we departed from Friday Harbor, we first headed south to begin our search. Making our way through Cattle Pass, we could hear roaring Steller’s Sea Lions and squawking Pelagic Cormorants and Gulls atop Whale Rocks. We continued south towards a shallow area known as Salmon Bank where...

Haleigh | M/V Osprey | July 2, 2022 | 5:30 pm

Today was a beautiful day out in the Salish Sea. We felt the winds as we passed through the chunky waters of Cattle Pass. We crossed the Strait of Juan de Fuca heading towards a report of a Humpback Whale that had spent its day feeding south of Lopez Island. We all felt the rolls of the boat, giving us the impression that we were out in open waters! It’s incredible to feel the power of the wind mixed with a high flood. As we slowly...

We began our journey today heading south down San Juan Channel. We observed some Harbor Seals hauled out along the shoreline of San Juan Island. These pinnipeds come in varying colors and can also frequently have speckles across their bodies. Not long afterwards we came across another pinniped that lives here in the Salish Sea, the Steller Sea Lion! Hauled up on Whale Rocks we found over a dozen of these mammals above the water line thermoregulating. This was a great way for us to...

July 1st, 2022

Abby Dahl

12:30pm Osprey

We left the dock on a beautiful, cloudy Friday afternoon. There had not been any whale sightings yet for the day, so we strapped on our binos and kept an eye out for anything remotely whale-like. We cruised north through San Juan Channels potting harbor seals and bald eagles. After some time, we were notified that a humpback whale known as BCX0915, better known as “Fallen Knight” was nearby, on the west side of Orcas Island.

We had some great...

10:00 am

Today’s adventure tour started out as a shockingly hot morning on land. Our guests, and myself, were eager to zip around on the water and cool off. We departed from Friday Harbor scanning the exposed shorelines due to the low tides hoping to find some Harbor Seals. We came across a reef nearby Yellow Island with some curious Harbor Seals hauled out and a Bald Eagle watching from the reef marker. We made our way around the island and across San Juan Channel where we found a...

Elle | M/V Sea Lion | June 25, 2022 | 2:00PM

This Saturday, lead naturalist Laura, Captain Gabe and I were excited to get out on the water and see what we could see. Before we even left the dock, we saw two bald eagles, one adult and one juvenile circling above us. As we cruised out of Roche Harbor, we got a report from other members of the Pacific Whale Watch Association that there were Bigg’s Killer Whales near Friday Harbor. We found the orcas just south of Friday Harbor. The T65A...