Jordan | June 26, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30 trip

Another lovely day began with leaving Friday Harbor at our newly scheduled time of 1:30 pm. Captain Mike, Naturalist Erick and I headed south through the San Juan Channel and past Cattle Pass.

A group of giant Steller sealions were crawling high up on the rocks at Whale Rocks and then jumping off into the water, making a huge splash! There were also some harbor seals down on the lower rocks near the waters edge. Due to the seals bone...

Guests aboard M/V Kestrel were treated to a fantastic day on the water yesterday, as Transient Orca pods T49A’s and T65A’s all hung out swimming around the south park of Spieden Island.  We saw lot’s of tail lobs from these oras, and even some breaches by some of the smaller kiddo orcas! 

We started out the trip suiting up in our very fashionable exposure suits, and heading down to board M/V Kestrel.  After Captain Gabe talked to us about safety and Kestrel we boarded and began out...

Captain Pete, naturalist Alexandria and I were ready for our day trip on a beautiful and sunny Tuesday. With almost a full boat, the guests and us were ready to see some whales! Captain Gabe had reports of Transient Orcas up near the Gulf Islands in Canada and headed towards us. This group had apparently cruised by Friday Harbor and up the San Juan Channel earlier that morning. It would take us about an hour to get up there, so we headed up the channel with no time to lose. How much...

Today we left Friday Harbor with no reports of whales in the area, which is not an uncommon way to start our day.  Just as we were exiting the harbor we got a report of some transient orcas about 10 minutes away from us.  We came across the T137’s hunting what looked to be like a porpoise.  Things were just getting exciting as we got there with lots of white water and jumping going on.  We then watched the orcas slowly begin to share their food and travel northwest.  We watched as...

[Sunday, 5/27/18 - M/V Kestrel - 6:00PM - Naturalist Erick]

On our evening trip on M/V Kestrel we got to enjoy the long, slow sunset over the Salish Sea. Captain Brian and I first headed towards the north side of Stewart Island. We soon saw blows closely following the shoreline. It was a group of Bigg’s Orcas traveling along the island. These are the orcas that prey on marine mammals  and this family that we were seeing is one that we have been seeing a few times the past few days...

[Saturday, 5/19/18 - M/V Kestrel - 2:00PM - Naturalist Erick]

For our afternoon trip, Captain Gabe and I took Kestrel north once again. We stopped to see some great Harbor Porpoises swimming in the rips off of Green Point! Next, we headed through Boundary Pass and stopped at East Point to look at all the super cool Steller Sea Lions, Harbor Seals, and Bonaparte’s Gulls resting, swimming, and feeding in this dynamic area called Boiling Reef. We continued up north along the Belle...

[Sarah – 04/20/2018 – M/V Sea Lion – 12:00pm]

Friday's whale and wildlife tour was OFF THE HOOK! We saw a little bit of everything!

We started the day by heading north out of Friday Harbor towards Spieden Island. Before even reaching its grassy slopes and rocky shores, we encountered harbor porpoise and Steller’s sea lions feeding in the rich upwelling water. We checked out some sea lions hauled out Green Point before heading across the island to see what we could find. There were ba...

[Tuesday, 4/17/18 – M/V Sea Lion – 12:00 – Naturalist Erick]

Another day goes by as the season of spring boldly brings us into a season of unpredictable weather, beautiful flowers and northward migration. Captain Mike and I took some folks out on this wonderful April day to go find some great wildlife. Our first stop was at Green Point on the eastern tip of Spieden Island. It was a little bit of a breezy day so all the sea lions that normally cover the rocky shore here were all in...

[Sunday – 3/11/18 – 12:00 – M/V Sea Lion – Naturalist Erick]

            Today, we luckily got another super sunny day! It almost felt like summer, but it was still a little cool outside. Captain Mike, Piper, and I took a great group out with us as we went on another search for some whales and other fun creatures in our waters. Early this morning, most of our team was out on M/V Sea Lion to practice safety drills and saw some orcas then, so at noon we headed in that direction to try...

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

This Saturday, we headed out again on another rare, sunny spring day! Captain Mike and I took our small group of guests north towards the outer islands of the San Juans and the Southern Gulf Islands of British Columbia. We made our first stop at Green Point (the eastern-most point on Spieden Island just north of San Juan). Here at Green Point is a favorite haul out spot for our largest pinniped species and the largest Sea...