This Wednesday we had started out north with a super group of people. Captain Pete, Hannah, and I started out by looking for Transient Orcas that had been spotted near Mandarte Island just across the border into Canada. We followed them over the border for a little two nation tour. We watched this one family of transients spend a great deal of time socializing with each other until they turned quickly towards shore. They quickly organized to entrap and take down a Harbor Seal! These...

Wow, did we cover a lot of water today! We had sunshine above and beautiful weather as we pulled out of Roche Harbor on our whale watch, but had some decisions to make regarding which direction to head today. We decided to seek out some whale activity that had been reported to the south of Orcas Island, so off we cruised. The ever-majestic bald eagles soared overhead, allowing us to see their massive 6-foot wingspan in all of its glory. Maybe they're getting excited for the Fourth of...

What a day! We spent the afternoon hanging out with some transient killer whales (some of the T46 family) off of the Salmon Bank at the southern end of San Juan Island. These whales appeared to be on the prowl, and it looked like the young 4-year-old orca, T46F, might have been getting some hunting lessons from his family. We saw members of this family the day before as well on the other side of the Straight of Juan de Fuca, where they were hunting a harbor porpoise. Adult males do...

On Friday we went up north! We started our daily search for cetaceans by heading up near Flattop Island to both look at some Harbor Seals and Bald Eagles on this Federally protected island and also look in several different channels to see if any whales could be spotted. None yet so we headed east now through one of my favorite channels in the islands, President Channel! It runs between Orcas and Waldron Island so our journey east was framed by steep wooded slopes on Orcas and...

We started off the day with hopeful reports of a group of transient killer whales just off of Victoria, BC. As we left the dock, we headed south down the San Juan Channel towards Cattle Point, the southernmost tip of San Juan Island. We stopped briefly to catch a look at a large group of harbor seals hauled out on a rocky bank only to realized that on the other side of the rocks was a large group of Steller sea lions, with a few California sea lions dispersed among them. The male...

What do you think about when you think about sound? Maybe you think about music, or birds, or waves crashing, but I bet you think about all of those sounds going into your ears right? We hear sounds all the time, even when we’re sleeping, but imagine a world that you experience almost everything through sound. This the world of dolphins, and especially the largest species of dolphin, the orca. Orcas echolocate. This is how they mainly interact with their watery world and it kind of...

Did you know that orcas live all over the world? They’re a cosmopolitan species just like us, the humans! There are ten distinct ecotypes worldwide that look similar but differ, in their behavior and their feeding habits. Here in the beautiful Salish Sea around the San Juan Islands there are two ecotypes that commonly pass through our waters! In the summer the famous Southern Residents swim through the islands in search of Chinook Salmon, but year round there is another ecotype that...

On Saturday, we had a pretty unique trip.  Our crew had the honor of assisting in the memorial service of a long-time island resident. Our guests said their goodbyes on a beautiful sunny day in front of the back drop of the Olympic Mountains. As the current gently pushed us along in San Juan Channel and the service ended Captain Mike had a hunch that There may be some Transient Orcas travelling in the thick fog bank sliding through Haro Strait. Transient Orcas usually travel in...

Captain Mike and I had yet another perfect spring private charter on the M/V Sea Lion. We woke up this morning and it felt like summer! The sun was shining, the sky was that special shade of San Juan blue, and there were reports of whales!

We headed north out of Friday Harbor skirting the northern side of Spieden Island. There were so many bald eagles out and about today, pretty much everywhere we looked we could find one: perched in Douglas firs on the shores, on the sloped of...

Today the ol' Sea Lion had yet another whale of an adventure.

It was one of those days with no prior reports of whales out in the Salish Sea, but that certainly doesn't mean they aren't out there. After loading the boat with excited passengers, bundled up against the Autumn chill and excited to see some wildlife, we took off and headed North out of Friday Harbor up through the San Juan Channel.

As we cruised up the channel we could see the tumult that was present as the flooding tide...