Maxx K. | M/V Sea Lion | 09/28/2022 | 12:30pm

    I was proper geeking out on today’s Classic Whale Watch. Now of course, the Salish Sea is well known to be an incredibly biodiverse ecosystem that allows us spectators to witness and appreciate a varied abundance of marine life- from tiny invertebrates to fifty ton cetaceans. Working out on the water, we become accustomed to our regular visitors: Humpback whales, Biggs killer whales, Steller sea lions, and Harbor seals just to name a...

Maxx K. | M/V Sea Lion | 04/10/2022 | 12:30pm

    Today was FUN. It was a cold day out on the water today, sure. But it was also absolutely gorgeous. A low layer of clouds rolled over the San Juan’s, dumping sporadic bouts of torrential rain over small pockets of the islands. We moved southbound out of Friday Harbor through the San Juan Channel, hoping to wrap our way around the southern side of the island and along the western shore line. We began hearing rumors of Killer Whales...

Haleigh | M/V Sea Lion | September 30, 2021 | 12:00 pm

Throughout this summer, we have only encountered the critically endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales a handful of times. It is growing more rare to see these struggling animals due to the lack of prey for them in the Salish Sea. Chinook Salmon is their #1 food source and has been heavily overfished and further declined due to habitat loss of freshwater rivers. Because they no longer have a stable food source of Chinook...

Haleigh | M/V Kestrel | September 1, 2021 | 2:00 pm

With the summer ending, each of us are reflecting on the wildlife experiences for the summer. Historically, we would have expected Southern Resident Killer Whales feeding and socializing along the west side of San Juan Island. SRKWs are now critically endangered due to the lack of salmon, specifically chinook salmon, in the Salish Sea. Typically our SRKWs would be around 70/80 days. Up until today, we had seen them 3 times… making...

Jordan Higgins | M/V Sea lion | 03/27/21 |1:00pm

Today was a fantastic day out on the water! Captain Pete, Laura and I hopped on our vessel, the Sea Lion, and took off out of Friday Harbor.

We were lucky to begin the tour with reports of Southern Resident whales just a couple islands away! But, before we could even leave the harbor, we found a different wildlife surprise: Steller sea lions! There were three of them lounging in the water, showing off their massive bodies as they...

Today we had another trip on our adventure boat, M/V Kestrel! It was another stunning summer day in the San Juan Islands. We had blue skies, calm seas, and a light breeze. Capt. Brian and I took a group of guests out to go search for some amazing wildlife in the Salish Sea! There had been reports of Southern Resident Killer Whales on the west side of San Juan Island and a report of some Bigg’s (Transient) Killer Whales east of us in Rosario Strait. These types are both orcas but have...

Laura C. | M/V Sea Lion | 8/31/2019 | 1:30 pm

Today was a marvelous day aboard M/V Sea Lion!  With several reports of whales in the area, we headed northbound through San Juan Channel full of excitement and anticipation of our upcoming wildlife sightings!  As we rounded San Juan Island into the Haro straight we found harbor porpoises cruising through the area in search of some fish!  These animals prefer areas with strong upwelling and current changes providing more prey availability...

*I’d like to start this blog off by apologizing for my overzealous and excessive use of “amazing,” “incredible,” and “awesome” but after a day out on the water like today, no words can truly do it justice.

What an AMAZING day it was today!  We had such an incredible trip!!!  We started off the day with reports of orcas in Rosario Strait (on the East side of Orcas Island).  We headed through Thatcher Pass and continued over to Rosario Strait but were so excited when we met up with J-...