[Sunday, 6/10/18 - M/V Sea Lion - Noon - Naturalist Erick]

On Sunday, Captain Pete, myself, and one of the new Naturalists, Jordan, left with a super group aboard M/V Sea Lion to search the Salish Sea for all it’s wonderful critters. First, we made our way towards the outer islands of the San Juan archipelago. These Islands are where the U.S. and Canada border is located and are more sparsely populated then the four main islands a little bit south. Just north of PAtos Island with...

[Saturday, 6/9/18 - M/V Kestrel - 2:00PM - Naturalist Erick]

On Saturday we headed out for another wonderful wildlife filled trip in the San Juan Islands. Captain Mike and I took a lovely group of folks out on M/V Kestrel into the bright, sunny, and calm day. We went south along the Shaw Island shoreline and took an inter-island route to near Obstruction Island. As you pause and san the horizon here it looks like you’re trapped in between Orcas, Shaw, Lopez, and Blakely Islands...

Saturday, June 2, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 Noon

 When Captain Gabe, lead naturalist Captain Sarah, new naturalist Jordan, and I pushed off the docks this afternoon, we never could have imagined the incredible sight we were about to witness. There were reports of orcas to the north, so, leaving the marina we turned left up San Juan Channel. Just as we rounded Point Caution we spotted a bald eagle perched atop a conifer overlooking the sea and stopped to get a closer look.

We then...

[Thursday, 5/31/18 - M/V Sea Lion - Noon - Naturalist Erick]

On Thursday, the grey morning broke into a sunny afternoon. Captain Mike and I took a wonderful group of folks out to search for wildlife in the Salish Sea. We headed north once again through San Juan Channel and Spieden Channel and eventually ended up in Haro Strait. Here, we saw several blows in the distance and as we approached we could see the black fins rising and going down into the water. It was a fairly large group...

[Wednesday, 5/23/18 - M/V Sea Lion - 12:00 - Naturalist Erick]

This Wednesday, Captain Pete and I headed north on another bright sunny day to the north. We made our first stop at Green Point on Spieden Island. Here, is a normal haul-out spot for Steller Sea Lions. Today, there was still around 8 left. They were all males of different ages lounging on the sunbaked rocks of the point. Soon though, all of these massive Steller Sea Lions will be gone as they migrate northward to their...

[Sunday, 5/20/18 - M/V Sea Lion - 12:00 - Naturalist Erick]

On this sunny day in May, Captain Mike and I took a lovely group of folks out to look for some great wildlife. We headed north through Boundary Pass, up Plumper Sound, and through the windy cliff-bordered waterways of Georgensen Pass into the Strait of Georgia. Out in the the middle of the Strait there were three adult Humpback Whales gathered round each other! They were super close to each other and were gently swimming...

Sunday, May 20th | M/V Kestrel | 10:00 AM

This morning the Kestrel powered up and took off north into San Juan Channel. Led by Captain Gabe, myself and our group of guests explored the waters between the Wasp Islands and up into President Channel before arriving at Patos Island to get a magnificent view of the lighthouse which marks the northernmost point of the San Juan Islands and the division of the east and west passages along the archipelago. The lighthouse has been in operation...

[Sarah – 05/18/2018 – M/V Kestrel – 2:00pm]

Welcome home Captain Gabe! On Captain Gabe’s first trip of the season we had an amazing day! M/V Kestrel never fails to impress me with her range on a 3-4 hour trip. Friday’s afternoon Adventure Tour was a great example, just of what that boat can do.

We left the dock with no firm reports of whales in our area, by the time we were in the mouth of Friday Harbor a boat had called in… Orcas! We left the harbor cruising north through San Juan...

Wednesday, May 16 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 Noon

The M/V Sea Lion left Friday Harbor today and headed south into the glorious San Juan sunshine towards a report of two humpback whales near Salmon Bank, just off Cattle Point. Captain Pete, naturalist Rachel, myself, and our guests arrived on scene to find a giant humpback whale pectoral fin waving in the air! Humpback pectoral fins are up to 15 feet in length and we watched as this animal showed us its left pec, then its right pec, then...

[Friday, 5/4/18 - M/V Sea Lion - 12:00 - Naturalist Erick]

May the Fourth Be with you!

Today, Captain Pete and I headed north to ply the waters of the Salish Sea and look for incredible wildlife. Yesterday, we heard of some Humpback Whales hanging out in Birch Bay so we headed in that direction. On the way there just as we exited Presidents Channel we saw a fairly large group of Harbor Porpoises hunting in a prominent current line. These little ones are the area’s smallest...