Alexandria | Thursday, April 11, 2019 | 12:00 | M/V Sea Lion

Today we had an awesome day on the water!  It was so awesome that we got to hang out with our group of orcas not once, but twice!   When we loaded onto M/V Sea Lion we were very excited to see what the day had in store.  We met up in the office and headed down to board our 55ft vessel.  Once on board Captain Brian and Captain Sarah introduced themselves and talked about what the game plan for the day was.

We had some...

Erick | Sunday, March 24, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 

Listen to the Bigg's Orca Vocals we recorded this day here

Yet another day of beautiful sunny weather today. Captain Mike and I took a pretty large group of folks out on M/V Sea Lin to look for some marine wildlife in the San Juan Islands. We left Friday Harbor and headed north towards the northern edge of the islands. We made our first stop at Flattop Island. This whole island is a nature preserve and it is a perfect spot to...

Erick | Friday, March 15, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00

On Friday, it was another beautiful sunny day that reminded us that spring is just around the corner for us! Captain Mike and I headed out with a great group up north to go see what we could find! We headed through San Juan Channel, then to Spring Pass, and through Presidents Channel. In Presidents Channel we got to see a lot of Harbor Porpoise. I sometimes call this area Porpoise alley. Harbor Porpoises are definitely our...

September 29- M/V Kestrel- 2:00 pm

It was a beautiful day out on the water!  We had some of our well-known transient orcas just North of Lopez Island.  We left Friday Harbor and headed that direction.  We watched as the T65A’s finished up a harbor seal meal.  We even got to see them do a few spyhops!  We decided to circumnavigate Lopez Island to see what else we could find.  We got to see a juvenile bald eagle and some of our impressive Steller’s sea lions.  After going around the...

Guests aboard Kestrel along with Cpt. Mike and I were excited to get on the water with a report of transient orcas already moving East from us. About an hour travel time for us to get on scene with these whales, Mike and I were eager to get everyone on the boat and ready to pick up speed. 

As of earlier, the day had been calm and sunny but now the wind was starting to pick up and the clouds were starting to show up. On our way over to these whales, we crossed San Juan Channel to take...

Guests aboard M/V Sea Lion along with naturalist Rachel, Captain Pete and I were ready to get out on the water on this CLEAR and sunny August day! After two long weeks of wildfire smokes in our area and no visibility, it was a treat to get to see the mountain ranges in the distance. Already looking like a good day with a report from another boat who had Humpbacks south of Cattle Pass. After boarding the boat and familiarizing our guests with the natural history of the area, we left...

August 24- M/V Kestrel- 10:00 am

We left the dock at Friday Harbor and East towards a report of a few transient orcas near Anacortes.  As we cruised along we kept an eye out for some other wildlife and came across some harbor porpoise and a bald eagle. We made it to the report of orcas on the North side of Cypress Island. It was the sibling pair of T65A3, who is 11 years old, and T65A4, who is 7 years old.  These two siblings have been hanging out on their own for a few days.  This...

August 26- M/V Sea Lion- 1:30 pm

We left the dock at Friday Harbor and North towards a report of a few transient orcas.  We decided to spend some time at Spieden island to look for some of our other wildlife.  We got to see some bald eagles, harbor seal, and some introduced sheep.  After getting our fill of wildlife we went to find some whales!  We came across a sibling pair of transient orcas.  It was T65A3, who is 11 years old, and T65A4, who is 7 years old.  These two siblings...

Guests aboard M/V Sea Lion along with the crew had quite a day today! Heading out Naturalists Eric, Captain Gabe, and I were struggling to decide what group of orcas to go watch! There being a couple of reports of whales nearby from other boats, we decided to go through Upright Channel to the north side of Lopez to encounter a group. There were two young transient orca in this group traveling apart from their pod, which was further southwest. This was not typical behavior of two...

Leaving the harbor aboard M/V Sea Lion with Captain Pete and naturalist Eric, I️ was excited to be on the water on such a sunny August day after a couple of foggy ones. There was a report of a humpback not too far away from us, so we decided to head that direction. 

Headed up north towards Waldron Island, we took a left out of the harbor into San Juan Channel. The guests were enthusiastic and many seemed very interested to learn about the conservation efforts being carried out...