09/01/17- M/V Kestrel- 2PM

Today some of our best known transient orcas were on the North side of Orcas Island, not a far boat ride from Friday Harbor. 

We headed up president’s channel where we looked at some beautiful seaside homes and saw some wildlife including some harbor seals and harbor porpoises.  We then headed around the North side of Orcas Island where we got a beautiful view of Mt. Baker.  Mt. Baker is about 10,500ft in elevation and is part of the Northern Cascade...

[Naturalist Erick D., M/V Sea Lion, 8/31/17, 1:30PM]

            On Thursday, Captain Pete, Rachel, and I took a great group of folks out on a wildlife watching adventure! We started out by heading west towards Vancouver Island to search for large baleen whales to the south of the Canadian city of Victoria. After crossing Haro Strait we saw a blow off in the distance! As we got closer we saw a small Humpback Whale swimming near Constance Bank. This one was a young one, but that...

09/01/17- M/V Kestrel- 2PM

M/V Sea Lion departed from Friday Harbor and headed South to go find one of the best-known transient orca families in the area. 

The T65A’s are a family consisting of a 31-year-old female and her four offspring.  This family is considered one of the most successful transient families in the Salish Sea because of the reproductive success and varied prey choices.  T65A, theoretically, still has 15+ years of reproduction left and she already has four surviving...

08/30/17- M/V Sea Lion- 1:30PM

Today we were lucky enough to find some transient killer whales on the North side of Orcas Island.  Specifically, we were looking at the T36A’s, a nice group of whales consisting of females and juveniles. 

People commonly ask the naturalists about the whale’s movement patterns and where we find the animals day to day.  When we wake up in the morning we never know where we may be traveling for our tour that day.  These animals move, on average, about 100...

[Naturalist Erick D., M/V Kestrel, 8/28/17, 2:00PM]

            It was Captain Gabe and me again today, going out there to have a bunch of fun with folks aboard the Kestrel. We started on a longer than usual trip heading south, then west towards Victoria and Vancouver Island. We headed there and went further west, beyond Race Rocks – the furthest point south along Vancouver Island. We almost made it to Sooke when we saw the group of Transient (Bigg’s) Orcas that we were looking for...

[Naturalist Erick, M/V Sea Lion, 8/20/17, 1:30PM]

            On Sunday, Captain Mike, Rachel, and I started on another super exciting wildlife and whale tour. We headed east towards some reports of Transient Orcas (the ones that eat marine mammals) and soon spotted them swimming south around Matia Island. It was the T065A’s! This is a pretty spectacular family of Transient Orcas, and one of my favorites. I have seen them hunt so many different prey in so many different ways. They...

[Naturalist Erick D., M/V Sea Lion, 8/19/17, 5:30PM]

The evening trips aboard the Sea Lion are my absolute favorite. We are coming up on the last week of them, but each time I go on one, it’s just so much more relaxing, there usually are less boats on the water, and less folks on the boat. Oh yeah, and the lighting is just spectacular. This evening we started out by heading north. We stopped at one of our favorite places, Flattop Island, to look at some Harbor Seals, Bald Eagles...

[Naturalist Erick D., M/V Kestrel, 8/18/17, 2:00PM]

            For our second Friday trip, Captain Mike and I took a bunch of folks out. We started by going to see some of the Harbor Seals that like to hang out on the rocks and in the water around Flattop Island. Flattop Island is one of the smaller islands in the archipelago that is managed by the Bureau of Land Management or U.S. Fish and Wildlife that is preserved for wildlife and no humans are allowed on it. We saw at least...

[Naturalist Erick D., M/V Kestrel,  8/18/17, 10:00AM]

Finally Friday! On this day Captain Mike and I headed out on an wildlife adventure with just a few folks in the morning. One of the families (matrilines) of Orcas (Killer Whales) that we had been seeing the past few weeks was spotted pretty close from land. We zipped over to Harney Channel in between Orcas and Shaw Islands. There they were tranquilly swimming along the Shaw Island shoreline. This particular family of Orcas was...

[Naturalist Erick D., M/V Sea Lion, 8/17/17, 1:30PM]

The weather here in the San Juans has definitely changed for the better. A few days ago the wind shifted and blew the smoky haze away, it rained!, and the temperature cooled down again. On this beautiful, cool, and sunny day Captain Gabe, Rachel, and I all took a full boat on a search for some fun nature!

Bald Eagles

Today we took an inter-island route since there were some whale reports on the other side of the islands. We...