Erin | M/V Kestrel | 11:00 AM | Tuesday, September 3, 2019

What a wonderful trip aboard Kestrel this afternoon! We began our trip with no firm reports of whales in the area, so we decided to head north in search of some whales. Right after we left the harbor, we saw a bald eagle perched in one of the treetops! It was an adult bald eagle, with a bright white head and some white tail feathers. As we headed through San Juan Channel, we saw some upwelling occurring around us. Upwelling...

Erin | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30 PM | Sunday, September 1, 2019

What an incredible trip aboard the M/V Sea Lion today! We travelled north out of Friday Harbor in pursuit of some killer whale reports in Canada! As we made our way toward Sidney Island, we went through some upwelling zones, which create whitewater and smooth patches. We also saw some harbor porpoises pop up in San Juan Channel. We crossed the border between the U.S. and Canada and went to a place called Hugh's Passage. After...

M/V Sea Lion | August 27th, 2019 | 1:30 PM | Naturalist Alexandria

Today we started off our trip with no firm reports.  There was a rumor of a humpback whale that was out fairly far south, but we didn’t have any reports of orcas within our range.  We decided to head out of the harbor but within a few moments of exiting the harbor we were excited to catch wind of a family of transient orcas fairly far up north.

We decided to make the trek and hope that these orcas didn’t swim too far...

M/V Sea Lion | August 26, 2019 | 1:30 PM | Naturalist Alexandria

What a fantastic day we had on the water!  When we started out our trip we had reports of orcas in Cattle Pass.  As we loaded the boat and left the harbor we made a right hand turn in San Juan Channel taking us south towards this sighting. 

By the time we reached these animals they had worked their way north towards us so we were able to meet up with them in San Juan Channel right off of Lopez Island.  As we approached...

Erin | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30PM | Sunday, August 25, 2019

What a lovely afternoon in the Salish Sea! We left the harbor with the knowledge that there was a pod of Bigg's killer whales fairly closeby to us! We headed in their general direction, searching for other wildlife along the way! We went to the southern shoreline of Spieden Island, and we almost immediately saw some wildlife! We first spotted some mouflon sheep, which are a non-native animal to the island. They were brought to...

Jordan | M/V Kestrel | 08/25/19 | 11:00am

We saw so much wildlife today!

Captain Gabe and I boated out of Friday Harbor on the Kestrel and headed south down through the San Juan Channel.

We stopped by huge rocks sitting in the middle of the channel and found Steller sea lions! These massive bouldering creatures crawled around the island, finding places to collapse for a nap.  Others swam in the water, diving between stalks of a bull kelp forest! Really amazing to see the huge animals...

Erin | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30 PM | Saturday, August 24, 2019

It was such a lovely evening on the M/V Sea Lion. The sun was shining when we left the harbor, and the water was flat. We were in for a nice sunset! We headed north out of Friday Harbor and travelled for about 10 minutes until we came across a pod of killer whales! They were travelling along the shoreline of Jones Island, and they were giving the whale watchers on shore a real show! At first they were just swimming along the...

Erin | M/V Sea Lion | Saturday, August 24, 2019 | 1:30PM 

It was one of the best whale watching trips of the season today! We began our trip with a multitude of reports of killer whales in our area. We were all so excited that there were so many around. We decided to first head toward Boundary Pass, which is north of Friday Harbor. We left out of the harbor and got into San Juan Channel. We passed Jones Island and found ourselves right by Flattop Island, looking at blows and dorsal...

M/V Kestrel | Saturday, August 24th, 2019 | Naturalist Alexandria | 11AM

We had such a good day on the water!  When we started out the trip Captain Brian had heard a report of orcas a bit on of Victoria.  We started our trek down south through San Juan Channel and began heading out towards these reports. 

We stopped at Whale Rocks and checked out some Steller Sea Lions that were hanging out on the rocks. They were so fun to look at, most were hauled out on the rocks sunning...

Erin | M/V Sea Lion | Friday, August 23, 2019 | 1:30 PM 

It was an incredible trip watching whales in the Salish Sea today! We began our trip heading south out of Friday Harbor, as we had some very promising reports of Bigg's killer whales around Smith Island. We headed through the San Juan Channel and went through Cattle Pass, where we got an excellent view of Cattle Point lighthouse! We then went into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which was abundant with wildlife. On our way toward...