Captain Mike, Sarah, and myself took out a wonderful group aboard M/V Sea Lion to look for the wide array of wildlife that we have the opportunity to watch in the Salish Sea in September. We took our group south through San Juan Channel towards Cattle Pass. We made our first stop mid channel in between San Juan and Lopez Islands to look at a Steller Sea Lion that had just surfaced! It was our first marine mammal of the day! This adult male had just returned to the surface after...

This Sunday in September sure felt like fall. Capt Gabe, Jordan, and myself headed out with a great group of passengers into the rainy blue Salish Sea. Most people visit this area in the summer, which is beautiful here. The temperature is usually super pleasant, the sun is up for a very long time, and there is usually not a rain cloud to speak of. The rest of the year though, it looks like it did today - very misty, cool, breezy, and rainy. We ventured off into the Pacific...

Guests aboard M/V Sea Lion along with naturalist Jordan, Captain Gabe and I were ready to get out on the water on this beautiful September day! After a smokey August, September was starting out pleasantly- sunny and warm days. After around three weeks of not seeing the southern residents in our waters, they had finally came back in. Gosh! We missed them! 

There were reports of a subgroup of L-pod around- the L12s not too far away from the harbor. The rest of the residents were...

Leaving the harbor with a full boat Captain Gabe and I were looking forward to see what Southern Residents were out on the water today. With a full boat and excited guests to get out on the water we took off South to see what we could find. There had been reports of Resident orca pods coming up the Southern tip of Lopez Island and very spread out. We headed down the San Juan Channel in hopes of encountering these animals somewhere on the south end.

As we crossed Cattle Pass, we...

[Tuesday, 6/12/18 - M/V Sea Lion - 12:00 - Naturalist Erick]

Another grand day in the San Juan Islands! It did start out a little grey, but was still pretty warm for June as Captain Gabe and I headed north with a great group of people aboard the M/V Sea Lion. We traveled up past Spieden, Johns, and Stuart Islands until we reached Boundary Pass. Here we started to see some blows against the cloudy grey sky reflected in the still waters of the Salish Sea. It was Orcas! It was a super...

[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...

[Naturalist Sarah – 11/18/2017 – M/V Sea Lion – 12:00]

November whale watching in the San Juan Islands is exciting. When we leave the dock we have no idea what we might find. Typically this time of year I expect to see amazing bird activity, harbor seals, Steller’s sea lions, humpback whales, Bigg’s killer whales, minke whales, and many other amazing species. Every now and again we get a sighting surprise.

Preparing for the Trip...

As I was getting the boat ready for our trip, our...

It’s the end of August folks, and that means beautiful vaguely fall days mixed in with sunny days, and less daylight, but not less whales! Yesterday Captain Mike, Sarah C., and I headed north to eventually loop around the north side of San Juan Island to go look at the Southern Resident Orcas. These are the fish eating ones, the ones you probably know the most about, and also the most endangered currently. Since they mainly eat salmon, and this year has been a historically low salmon...

Hello, It’s me... again, and yes I’m sorry but not sorry I’m going to talk about salmon and their connection to Southern Resident Orcas again. Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKW) eat fish and 80% of their diet is one species of fish: Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), and yes before you ask they definitely tell the difference. It’s probably not because of their refined palate, but perhaps, it’s more likely due to their incredible echolocation abilities to determine between...

Today was a beautiful day all around with sunny sky's, nice people, L-Pod, and lot's of wildlife! The M/V Sea Lion headed North today towards Turn Point (the most Northwestern part of the continental U.S.) where we had reports of some Southern Resident Orcas. I couldn't contain my delight when I told guests we had reports of these Orcas especially since it is rather late in September and they are still around!

On our way out we say some steller sea lions surfaced right in front of...