This afternoon the Sea Lion made a long trek up into the Strait of Georgia where we encountered the T65A’s socializing.  We left Friday Harbor with reports of orcas near Point Roberts, not far from the city of Vancouver.  We journeyed our way up to that area and on the way we saw some harbor porpoise.  Once up in the strait we watched the whales as they appeared to be socializing, we even got to see one whale spyhop out of the water.  Because we went such a distance to be able to see...

Today was a gorgeous morning on M/V Kestrel!

We took to the waters this morning at 10am in search of whales!  Captain Mike had gotten a report of Transient Orcas up North near Tumbo Island!  Luckily Kestrel is a incredible vessel- the boat equivalent of a well bread race horse shall we say? Captain Mike and myself, along with our incredible guests were up for the adventure and we headed north! 

On our way we were treated to some adorable harbor porpoise views as they frolicked in San...

Today we left Friday Harbor with reports of transient orcas in the southern part of Strait of Juan de Fuca near Port Townsend.  We headed south of San Juan Island and came across the T137’s, a family of four mammal eating whales.  When we first arrived we saw the whales enjoying some prey-sharing time.  This is after whales have completed a kill and move on to tearing the carcass apart and sharing it among the family members.  We were also lucky enough to see some surface social...

It was the warmest evening we had so far this season and the sunset tour was just about to kick off with some reports of killer whales East of Orcas Island. We didn’t yet know what group of whales were over there, but we decided to head that way and find out! The wind was amazingly warm and most of the guests were gladly sitting at the vow. We had some excited guests and even a birthday on board! We decided to head towards Rosario Strait going up Upright Channel and then through...

[Wednesday, 6/13/18 - M/V Kestrel - 10:00AM - Naturalist Erick]

Today we had another ‘June-ary’ day as the morning started out with rain but broke to a delightful sunny day. Captain Mike and I took a smaller group of folks out to search for all the fun morning critters out in the Salish Sea. We headed north through San Juan and Spieden Channels until we made it to the other side of Boundary Pass near South Pender Island. Here there was a large group of Bigg’s Orcas feeding and...

[Monday, 6/11/18 - M/V Kestrel - 2:00PM - Naturalist Erick]

Happy Monday Everyone! We hope your weekend was as good as ours, and it’s only going to get better this week! This Monday afternoon Captain Gabe and I took a super fun group of people out on a trip aboard M/V Kestrel. We started by heading north through San Juan Channel. We traveled around the northern side of San Juan and Henry Islands. Just as we rounded Henry Island we saw some blows in the distance around Kellett...

June 09, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 Noon 

What a fantastic trip we had today! The weather was super cooperative and shone sunlight on our entire journey. Captain Gabe, Mariana and I were all very excited to start the day and set off on the voyage to find whales.

Coming out of Friday Harbor for the 12:00 trip, we headed south towards Cattle Pass. As we boated through Griffin Bay and neared Cattle Point (the southern point of San Juan), we spotted the orca whales! Multiple groups of...

[Sunday, 6/10/18 - M/V Sea Lion - Noon - Naturalist Erick]

On Sunday, Captain Pete, myself, and one of the new Naturalists, Jordan, left with a super group aboard M/V Sea Lion to search the Salish Sea for all it’s wonderful critters. First, we made our way towards the outer islands of the San Juan archipelago. These Islands are where the U.S. and Canada border is located and are more sparsely populated then the four main islands a little bit south. Just north of PAtos Island with...

[Saturday, 6/9/18 - M/V Kestrel - 2:00PM - Naturalist Erick]

On Saturday we headed out for another wonderful wildlife filled trip in the San Juan Islands. Captain Mike and I took a lovely group of folks out on M/V Kestrel into the bright, sunny, and calm day. We went south along the Shaw Island shoreline and took an inter-island route to near Obstruction Island. As you pause and san the horizon here it looks like you’re trapped in between Orcas, Shaw, Lopez, and Blakely Islands...

[Thursday, 6/7/18 - M/V Sea Lion - 12:00 - Naturalist Erick] T100’s

On Thursday we got a little break in what locals call our “June-uary” weather. After a sunny warm stint in May, June often comes here and reminds us that it is still spring. Captain Mike, myself, and one of our brand new Naturalists, Mariana, took a great group of folks out to look for more fun springtime wildlife! We headed up north in between the outer islands of the San Juan Archipelago. We made our first stop...