[Friday – 4/6/18 – 12:00 – M/V Sea Lion – Naturalist Erick]

Today was a perfect Pacific Northwest day. This morning was completely covered with a misty low-level cloud cover. It was only about 1,000 feet high, so it masked the tallest hills in the islands and scraped the tops of the evergreen forest covering the islands. This is the weather that this area is known for and what it was meant to look like. As Captain Mike and I took a small group out with us to go look for some whales...

[Sunday, 4/1/18 – 12:00 – M/V Sea Lion – Naturalist Erick]

            On Sunday, we went on another fun search for wonderful wildlife in the San Juan Islands! We headed north towards Spieden Island. We made a quick stop just south of Point Caution because there were four Bald Eagles fighting over some carcass right next to shore. They were super active and kept dive bombing each other with talons open! After they flew away we continued northward. We headed through Spieden Channel...

[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...

[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...

A Beautiful Day on the Water with the T 10s

[Naturalist Alexandria – 09/26/2017 – M/V Sea Lion – 12:00pm]

What an awesome day on the water we had!  Naturalist Courtney and myself were so excited to begin our trip today, as we knew our Captain had received reports of Transient, or Biggs Orcas, being in the area!  We eagerly greeted our new friends that would be joining us on our trip for the next few hours, boarded everyone onto M/V Sea Lion, and were off! 

It wasn’t long before we...

 M/V Sea Lion: Sunday 9/17 @ 12pm

An Early Autumn Afternoon

We started our whale watching trip on a gorgeous, cool and crisp early autumn afternoon.  Our enthusiastic group wasn’t going to let a few sprinkles of rain put a damper on our excitement for what was to come!  We loaded onto M/V Sea Lion- our trusty vessel for the trip- and departed on our adventure.  The crew offered fashionable rain slickers and blankets to anyone who wanted to ensure they keep dry, but mother nature...

[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...

[Naturalist Sarah C. 9/3/17 M/V Sea Lion 1:30pm departure]

Transient orcas have been spotted in the dozens around the San Juans this week. It's not always the case that we get to choose which whale sighting we pursue on our daily departures from Friday Harbor. With multiple families spotted within our range, we chose a company favorite for today's adventure - the T65A's.

Orcas, as a species, are matriarchal, meaning that the oldest female in a family group is in charge. For...