August 24- M/V Kestrel- 10:00 am

We left the dock at Friday Harbor and East towards a report of a few transient orcas near Anacortes.  As we cruised along we kept an eye out for some other wildlife and came across some harbor porpoise and a bald eagle. We made it to the report of orcas on the North side of Cypress Island. It was the sibling pair of T65A3, who is 11 years old, and T65A4, who is 7 years old.  These two siblings have been hanging out on their own for a few days.  This...

August 28- M/V Sea Lion- 1:30 pm

Yesterday we left the dock at Friday Harbor and went North towards British Columbia.  We came across a few families of transient orcas, specifically the T100’s and the T124D’s.  In total we had 8 whales milling about in the Strait of Georgia.  Those families include a nice variety of individuals from a sprouting male to a young juvenile.  The whales were in two groups and moving very erratically, which can be somewhat difficult to maneuver around to...

August 26- M/V Sea Lion- 1:30 pm

We left the dock at Friday Harbor and North towards a report of a few transient orcas.  We decided to spend some time at Spieden island to look for some of our other wildlife.  We got to see some bald eagles, harbor seal, and some introduced sheep.  After getting our fill of wildlife we went to find some whales!  We came across a sibling pair of transient orcas.  It was T65A3, who is 11 years old, and T65A4, who is 7 years old.  These two siblings...

Guests aboard M/V Sea Lion along with the crew had quite a day today! Heading out Naturalists Eric, Captain Gabe, and I were struggling to decide what group of orcas to go watch! There being a couple of reports of whales nearby from other boats, we decided to go through Upright Channel to the north side of Lopez to encounter a group. There were two young transient orca in this group traveling apart from their pod, which was further southwest. This was not typical behavior of two...

Jordan | August 22, 2018 | M/V Kestrel | 2:00 trip

Today was such a good day! Captain Gabe and I headed south through the San Juan Channel towards reports of transient whales near the Olympic Peninsula. We first stopped by Whale Rocks and saw some Steller sea lions on the rocks! It was really fun to see these massive animals lounging and enjoying the sun streaming through the cloudy skies. There were also harbor seals sitting nearby flopping around.

Then we sped off further south...

Jordan | August 22, 2018 | M/V Kestrel | 10:00 trip

This morning started off really crazily amazing! Captain Gabe and I headed out of Friday Harbor and headed south down through the San Juan Channel and almost immediately found a Steller sea lion eating a skate! Skates are a species of fish that are related to rays. So, the sea lion was splashing around at the surface, throwing around this flat floppy fish and ripping it apart! It was so exciting to witness the circle of life at work...

August 18- M/V Sea Lion- 1:30 pm

For our tour today we had a report of some transient orcas near some small islands on the North side of Orcas island.  On our way up to that report we saw some harbor porpoise in Presidents channel.  We then got to a group of orcas call the T2C’s.  This particular group is interesting because they have a sprouting male who has a severe case of scoliosis.  It is pretty well known that cetaceans can have scoliosis but this particular individual is the...

[Friday, 8/17/18, M/V Kestrel]

On Friday, Captain Mike and I took Kestrel out for two trips with great folks on each one. On M/V Kestrel we go extremely fast so we can cover lots of water to look for the coolest wildlife in the Salish Sea. We headed out and on our first trip we ended up on the east side of Orcas Island in Rosario Strait. It was a group of Transient Orcas (Killer Whales)! We also call this type Bigg’s Orcas. They are the type of Orcas that we see in the inland sea...

August 16- M/V Kestrel - 10:00 am

For our first trip out on the water we headed out towards British Columbia to go and find some orca whales.  We went up to Saturna Island to find a group of transient orcas called the T2C’s.  This particular day our guests were very lucky to get a great look at some of our mammal eating orcas.  Not only do we always want to find whales on our trips we also always try to highlight other wildlife in the area as well.  Harbor seals are definetly are...

Jordan | August 14, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30 trip

Today was a beautiful foggy day that made the islands seem extra magical today. As the sun set in the sky, the blazing orange ball made the water sparkle like a painting. Captain Pete, Alexandria and I headed north through the San Juan Channel, boated south of Spieden Island and around towards the coast of Henry Island.

Here we found a group of transient (Bigg’s) whales! The T2Cs were taking deep dives and popping up every so often...