Today was an incredible day on our afternoon adventure tour from Friday Harbor. It was one of those September days that I spend allllllll summer thinking about. We left the dock under bright blue skies with great reports of whales around the San Juan Islands.

We headed north towards the reports of whales, and first encountered a pair of humpback whales know as BCY0160 “Heather” and BCY0660 “Raptor.” As we got on to scene one of the massive whales lifted its pectoral fins out of the...

[Thursday, 8/16/18, M/V Sea Lion Noon & 5:30PM]

On Thursday, the M/V Sea Lion had two wonderful trips out on the Salish Sea. Naturalists Sarah and I on both trips took great groups of people out. On our first trip we saw a bunches of Harbor Seals swimming around and resting on rocks on Whale Rocks in Cattle Pass. Then we went to Lawson Reef in Rosario Strait and saw a group of Transient (Bigg’s) Orcas. These orcas are the ecotype that live on the west coast of North America that...

M/V Sea Lion was all boarded and ready to go along with Captain Pete, naturalist Jordan and myself. The sunset trip was sounding like a good one already with a report of southern resident orca within our range. The only problem was, we didn’t know whether to head south or north to get around to the West side of the island from Friday Harbor. We were hesitant that if we went one way versus the other, they would keep moving the opposite way and away making it harder for us to catch up...

[Tuesday, 6/27/18 - M/V Sea Lion - 5:30PM - Naturalist Erick]

On Tuesday, Captain Mike and myself were on our own with a smaller group of guests on the sunset tour - aka my favorite tour. We went south through San Juan Channel and Cattle Pass to eventually head towards the southern end of Rosario Strait. We were pointed in this direction to look for a Humpback Whale that we had seen during the afternoon trip. On our way there we stopped at Whale Rocks in Cattle Pass to look at the...

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...

[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...

June 10, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30 Sunset 

Today the 5:30 sunset tour hosted a small group of enthusiastic whale lovers! Captain Pete and I heard reports of orcas heading north along the east side of San Juan Island so we decided to head around the north end of the island and down the east side to meet them.

As we neared Lime Kiln, the first spouts were detected! Eventually we realized that multiple groups were swimming around the boat: the T86s, T100s and T101s. These beautiful...

[Saturday, 3/31/18 – 12:00 – M/V Sea Lion – Naturalist Erick]

Happy end of March and Passover!

On Saturday it was so beautiful and there were so many folks that were interested in coming out with us that we had to take two trips out to see our wonderful wildlife! Captain Mike, Piper, and I took a great group of folks out. It was sunny and calm, and we couldn’t ask for a more perfect spring day. We headed south through San Juan Channel, passed through Cattle Pass and traveled...

[Naturalist Sarah – 10/01/2017 – M/V Kestrel – 02:00pm]

Going into October we start to see magical light out on the water and special encounters with wildlife. Leaving the dock in Friday Harbor we didn’t have a report of whales in our area, but at this time of year that rarely means anything for the day’s sighting. Sunday’s trip was a perfect example of how our sighting network, the Pacific Whale Watch Association, works to our customer’s advantage.

Captain Mike steered the M/V...

[Naturalist Erick D., M/V Kestrel,  8/18/17, 10:00AM]

Finally Friday! On this day Captain Mike and I headed out on an wildlife adventure with just a few folks in the morning. One of the families (matrilines) of Orcas (Killer Whales) that we had been seeing the past few weeks was spotted pretty close from land. We zipped over to Harney Channel in between Orcas and Shaw Islands. There they were tranquilly swimming along the Shaw Island shoreline. This particular family of Orcas was...