[Piper | 8/30/18 | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30 PM]

Today, Captain Gabe, Naturalist Mariana and I boarded the Sea Lion with a great group of guests and headed north from Friday Harbor, all the way up into the Canadian waters of the Strait of Georgia. It took a little while to get there but it was so worth it because when we arrived, we found five families of Bigg’s killer whales, made up of 20 or so orcas, socializing and traveling south. These orcas were lobbing their tails and spy-hopping...

August 19- M/V Kestrel- 10:00 am

We left Friday Harbor and headed South West towards Canada where there was a report of some transient orcas.  On our way down to Victoria we got to see some harbor seals and some Steller’s sea lions.  Steller’s sea lions spend the majority of the summer on the coast or up in Alaska for their breeding season, but some have started to return!  We then went and saw a mother-son pair of transient orcas resting near Victoria.  We then got another report of...

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 28- M/V Sea Lion- 1:30 pm

Yesterday we left the dock at Friday Harbor and went North towards British Columbia.  We came across a few families of transient orcas, specifically the T100’s and the T124D’s.  In total we had 8 whales milling about in the Strait of Georgia.  Those families include a nice variety of individuals from a sprouting male to a young juvenile.  The whales were in two groups and moving very erratically, which can be somewhat difficult to maneuver around to...

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...

Jordan | August 22, 2018 | M/V Kestrel | 2:00 trip

Today was such a good day! Captain Gabe and I headed south through the San Juan Channel towards reports of transient whales near the Olympic Peninsula. We first stopped by Whale Rocks and saw some Steller sea lions on the rocks! It was really fun to see these massive animals lounging and enjoying the sun streaming through the cloudy skies. There were also harbor seals sitting nearby flopping around.

Then we sped off further south...

August 18- M/V Sea Lion- 1:30 pm

For our tour today we had a report of some transient orcas near some small islands on the North side of Orcas island.  On our way up to that report we saw some harbor porpoise in Presidents channel.  We then got to a group of orcas call the T2C’s.  This particular group is interesting because they have a sprouting male who has a severe case of scoliosis.  It is pretty well known that cetaceans can have scoliosis but this particular individual is the...

[Friday, 8/17/18, M/V Kestrel]

On Friday, Captain Mike and I took Kestrel out for two trips with great folks on each one. On M/V Kestrel we go extremely fast so we can cover lots of water to look for the coolest wildlife in the Salish Sea. We headed out and on our first trip we ended up on the east side of Orcas Island in Rosario Strait. It was a group of Transient Orcas (Killer Whales)! We also call this type Bigg’s Orcas. They are the type of Orcas that we see in the inland sea...

[Thursday, 8/16/18, M/V Sea Lion Noon & 5:30PM]

On Thursday, the M/V Sea Lion had two wonderful trips out on the Salish Sea. Naturalists Sarah and I on both trips took great groups of people out. On our first trip we saw a bunches of Harbor Seals swimming around and resting on rocks on Whale Rocks in Cattle Pass. Then we went to Lawson Reef in Rosario Strait and saw a group of Transient (Bigg’s) Orcas. These orcas are the ecotype that live on the west coast of North America that...