Jordan | July 10, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30 trip

What a great trip we had today! We received reports of whales traveling off of Active Pass up in Canadian waters. So, Captain Pete and I voyaged up through the San Juan Channel, past Boundary Pass, around the west side of Saturna Island and all the way up to Trincomali Channel. It was a long journey but it was definitely worth it when we found the whales!

We found two pods of transient whales, T124As and T36As, traveling together up...

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...

Jordan | June 20, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30 sunset

Captain Pete, Alexandria and I journeyed out of Friday Harbor for the 5:30 sunset tour on our quest to find the whales! The M/V Sea Lion headed north up the San Juan Channel, through the Spieden Channel to the West coast of Henry Island.

Here we found a group of Southern Resident orca whales! In fact, J pod was having a wonderful time scanning the shoreline for their salmon. We watched the whales jump and spy hop and slap the water...

Jordan | June 14, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30 sunset

The Sealion, along with Captain Pete and myself, voyaged out of Friday Harbor for the 5:30 sunset tour. Luckily, J Pod just recently returned to the San Juan islands causing excitement amongst the entire region! Today, this large group of Southern Resident whales decided that the southwest waters of San Juan Island was the best place to be. So, Captain Pete led us south past Cattle Point and up to Eagle Point where we saw our first...

Jordan | June 13, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 noon

What a great day within the Salish Sea! The 12:00 noon tour had such a wonderful group of people who asked so many thoughtful questions! Before we even left the dock, our guests showed us they were eager to learn. Captain Pete, Mariana and I set off from Friday Harbor with high hopes of finding some orca whales and excited to teach everyone about our wildlife.

We ventured north and cut through the channel beneath Speiden Island...

[Lauren Fritz, M/V Kittiwake, 08/04/17, 5:30 pm Charter]

What an amazing day on the water! We had a charter this evening, and we were lucky enough to encounter an amazing humpback whale who was curious and playful - it swam right under us a few times! Check out my favorite photos from the trip. We are so lucky here in the Salish Sea to experience these encounters, there's nowhere else in the world quite like it!

Humpback whales in the Salish Sea have rebounded dramatically from a...

(06/10/2017 - Kestrel 2pm Departure)

Yesterday I said that our trip was a once in a lifetime experience and one for the books.  Well today’s trip was a repeat!  We had an amazing day out on the water full of some of the best wildlife viewing in my time out on the water.  We were lucky enough to have a day where there were transient orcas right outside of Friday Harbor.  We left our dock and watched the T2C’S looking for food for about 30 minutes.  The T2C’s are a pod of 5 whales...

Today was a great day on the M/V Kestrel, full of fun learning experiences for both the guests and myself.  We had reports of humpback whales just off of East Point in the Strait of Georgia.  We sped up that way in a quick effort to get to the sighting.  We quickly reached the whales and watched as a humpback mom and juvenile pair surfaced slowly in, what appeared to be, no directional pattern.  We continued to watch as the pair went through dive sequences and showed off their tail...

M/V Sea Lion and her passengers witnessed some pretty amazing Southern Resident Killer Whale activity today! We had only to travel a bit south to Cattle Pass to catch up with a large group of J's and L's that were headed west (unfortunately, it looked like they were heading out of the Salish Sea through the Strait of Juan de Fuca). At first sighting, they appeared to be traveling rather quickly, spread out and sporadically slowing down to forage for their main food source, Chinook...

Yesterday, the skies cleared to reveal a wonderfully blue sky with wispy, white clouds. The last few days we have been lucky here. This year has been marked as a historically low salmon year, and for this reason we have not seen the Resident Orcas (whose main food source is salmon) very much in the Salish Sea. This past week J pod of the Residents Orcas has been in and around the islands hunting for salmon. On Sunday, we headed south to arrive on the southern side of the islands to...