Olivia | M/V Kestrel | August 20, 2020 | 14:00

Leaving the dock, we had a rumored report of Bigg’s Killer Whales in U.S. waters but inching closer to the Canadian border. Due to Covid-19, that border is closed not only on land, but also across the water. Therefore, after a brief stop in Cattle Pass to get the passengers on board with our game plan and be in tune with our surroundings, we headed straight to find the group of six black and white dolphins.

Upon arrival, we spotted the...

Erick | M/V Sea Lion | 1:00PM | August 21, 2020

This afternoon there was the treat of rain in the sky but luckily it held off till later in the day. Captain Pete and I took out a great crew of passengers out to search for the local wildlife in the Salish Sea! We started by heading south. There were some early reports of Orcas down by Middle Bank of the southwestern side of San Juan Island. We headed straight there, and they were still travelling slowly parallel to the international...

Erick | M/V Kestrel | August 15, 2020 | 2:00PM

It was another super beautiful, sunny day out here in the San Juan Islands. Capt. Brian and I took a group out to go searching for some of our exciting local wildlife. We started by going south through San Juan Channel and into Cattle Pass! We made a stop at Whale Rocks in Cattle Pass. Here we saw about a dozen huge Steller Sea Lions. Some were rolling around in the water, while others were asleep on the rocks and dozing off in the...

Laura | M/V Sea Lion | 8/14/2020 | 5:30pm

This evening’s 5:30 whale watch was filled with more than two hours of pure orca bliss!  Captain Erick drove M/V Sea Lion north out of Friday Harbor and into Presidents Channel.  It did not take us long for our first orca sighting of the trip to appear in thin air.  There were exhales right off West Beach on Orcas Island!  These exhalations belonged to the T137s and T36As, two families of Bigg’s killer whales!  We watched these orcas...

Olivia | M/V Sea Lion | August 11, 2020 | 13:00

It was an exception treat this morning leaving the dock. We had reports of Bigg’s Killer Whales within our area that swam in quickly from Victoria early this morning. They moved up so far and fast, that leaving the dock they were milling near the south western part of San Juan Island. In order to give our passengers, the best possible opportunity to view Transient Orca, we decided to head straight for this family before they moved too...

Olivia | M/V Kestrel | August 7th, 2020 | 14:00

The Hail Mary works again! Captain Brian and I decided to take a chance and head far south on our afternoon adventure trip in an attempt to see Killer Whales between Whidbey and Camano Islands. This was a long shot as there was no coverage on the whales and we would have to find them ourselves, in addition to going far and pushing our time limits with the four-hour trip. We decided it was worth it to give it our all for our passengers...

Olivia | M/V Sea Lion | August 4th, 2020 | 17:30

After seeing the T018 family group of Bigg’s Killer Whales on our 13:00 trip, Captain Sarah and I were determined to see them before they moved out of range in order to provide our sunset passengers with the same opportunity. This meant a very quick dock talk and off we went heading north through San Juan Channel, crossing up President’s Channel, and aiming for Sucia Island. On the southeast side of Sucia, we saw the large dorsal fins...

Olivia | M/V Kestrel | August 1st, 2020 | 14:00

Today was easily in my Top 5 of Bigg’s Killer Whale experiences. Captain Brian and I knew there were two family groups of transient orca down between Whidbey and Camano Islands. However, we also knew there were Humpback Whales in north Rosario Strait. The dilemma? We REALLY wanted to see orca. Here were our options; 1) Go see Humpback Whales in North Rosario that have coverage by the PWWA, or 2) Go find these transient orca that had no...

Olivia | M/V Sea Lion | July 28th, 2020 | 13:30

It was a great start to our 13:30 trip since there were Transient Orca in the San Juan Channel! These Bigg’s Killer Whales were the family groups of T137’s and T65A’s, around 11 individuals. We initially found them in Upright Channel and were able to view them as they traveled south past Turn Island. It was great seeing the Transient Orca in our waters once again, as they slipped away while the Southern Resident Killer Whales were...

Olivia | M/V Sea Lion | July 20th, 2020 | 17:30

For our evening sunset trip, we heard that the same Bigg’s Killer Whales from earlier this morning were still in range but traveling a bit further east closer to the edge of our scope. We felt it would still be worth it to our 11 passengers to see the black and white dolphins if at all possible, so off we went! Heading north through the San Juan Channel and cutting through Presidents Channel, Harbor Porpoise started swimming on the port...