[Monday, 3/19/18 – 12:00 – M/V Sea Lion – Naturalist Erick]

            Again, today, it was beautiful and sunny, and the green waters of the Salish Sea greeted us placidly. Sometimes this great weather is too much. Captain Mike, myself, and a newbie, Alexandria headed out with a great group of folks to find some fun creatures out in the wilds of the sea. We headed north to the place where we had spotted some orcas earlier that morning in San Juan Channel. We soon found them again...

[Friday, 3/16/18 - 12:00 – M/V Sea Lion – Naturalist Erick]

     We have been experiencing a long sunny break from our normal drizzly spring weather and it seems to be bringing out all the natural spring activities in full force. Flowers are blooming, there are little lambs running around everywhere, and the birds have started to migrate back north. On this lovely, sunny day Captain Mike and I took our small group of guests out to search for some fun wildlife. We headed north towards...

M/V Sea Lion – 12:00 Noon – Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Just as the first sprinkles fell from the sky the M/V Sea Lion departed from Friday Harbor carrying Captain Mike, Sarah, Erick, myself and an awesome group of kids and kids-at-heart! Heading south along San Juan Channel towards rumors of a large group of orcas in the open waters of the Salish Sea south of San Juan Island. As we closed in on Cattle Pass, we were met with a small group of harbor porpoises swimming in the ripping...

[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 – 3/10/18 – 12:00 – M/V Sea Lion – Naturalist Erick]

Bigg's Orca Family in Rosario Strait (T2C's)

            Here we are, It is another fabulous, sunny day in the Salish Sea. Captain Mike, Piper, and I headed out into the sunshine to look for some exciting wildlife. We headed north and ended up taking an inter-island route in between all the larger islands of our little archipelago like Shaw, Lopez, and Orcas Islands. We ended up heading in this easterly direction because...

[Saturday 02/10/2018, M/V Sea Lion 12:00, Naturalist Erick]

     And…we’re back! Saturday was San Juan Safaris’ first public trip of 2018! A high pressure system has moved into the San Juan Islands so this weekend has been sunny, calm, and a little brisk. Most folks come to see whales in the summer months for many reasons. The weather is nice, kids are off from school, and that is when we usually see the Southern Resident Killer Whales – the famous J, K, and L pods. Unbeknownst to...

[Naturalist Erick, Friday 10/27/17, M/V Sea Lion, 12:00]

All of western Washington’s coastline has jumped headlong into fall this week. We have been basking in the warm autumn sunshine and cool fall breezes that mark some of the best days for wildlife watching in San Juan Islands.

Migration Station

On Friday, we started our adventure by traveling north. Autumn means southward migration for both birds and some whale species. The past few weeks we have been seeing Humpback Whales...

[Naturalist Sarah – 10/13/2017 – M/V Sea Lion – 12:00pm]

On Friday we had a lovely trip to find wildlife. We enjoyed beautiful water as we cruised over to the Canadian border and towards Victoria. On these fall days sometimes we need to go a bit out of our way to find whales and other wildlife. Captain Mike and I decided to go the extra mile to show our guests some orcas!

Just outside of the city’s harbor we found the T011s, a mother-son pair of orcas. This is one of my favorite...

10/3/17- M/V Sea lion- 12PM

We left Friday Harbor and headed towards Haro Strait, towards reports of Bigg’s killer whales in the area.  We had barely made it out of the harbor when a humpback surprised us near the shoreline of San Juan Island.  We quickly turned around to follow the animal as it traveled South East.  We watched as the humpback whale did a few diving sequences, showing us its beautiful 15ft wide tail.  We decided to keep going and head towards the orca reports. 

On...

09/25/17- M/V Kestrel- 2PM

Today was a magical day out on the water, our guests were spoiled!  We headed South towards the Strait of Juan de Fuca and stopped to see some Steller’s Sea lions along the way.  Although these animals are amazing to see in action they don’t smell too great. 

We continued on and headed towards the city of Victoria through the glassy waters of the strait.  We made it just South of Race Rocks and spotted a humpback whale.  This humpback whale was a brit...