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

What a great day out on the water it was!  When we initially boarded on M/V Kestrel we had no firm reports to work off of, but by the time we had gotten everyone boarded and pushed ourselves off the dock, Captain Gabe and Captain Pete received word of an orca sighting off of Matia Island!

Matia Island is north of Orcas Island so we took a left after leaving Friday Harbor and headed north up San Juan Channel.  We stopped and...

Jordan | M/V Kestrel | 06/23/19 | 11:00am
 

The day started with clouds floating low in the sky. It wasn’t the typical overcast but somehow much more beautiful as they hid the distant mountains. Captain Gabe and I took the Kestrel out of Friday Harbor and headed north through the San Juan Channel.

We sped towards this beautiful island called Flattop and stopped along its shoreline. Here we found a bald eagle perched high in a tree, its white head glowing in the light. Then we saw...

Erin | M/V Kestrel | Saturday, June 22, 2019 | 11:00 AM

It was a truly adventurous trip aboard the M/V Kestrel this morning. We began our trip heading north out of Friday Harbor. There were some orca reports in the Strait of Georgia, and we figured we would give it a shot to try and see them. On our way there, we stopped at Flattop Island. We saw lots of harbor seals hauled out on the rocks, some of which were heading into the water. We then went around the island and saw at least 6...

Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 06/21/19 | 12:00pm

The sun shone high in the sky on this lovely Friday in Friday Harbor! Almost immediately, the crew received reports of whales not too far away, so everyone got really excited.

Captain Pete, Naturalist Erin and I took our vessel, the Sea Lion, out of the harbor and headed south through the San Juan Channel. Passing between San Juan and Lopez, we boated past Cattle Point lighthouse, a beautiful southern point to our island. Then, we turned...

Piper | Wednesday, June 19, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 PM

Today was a bit of a blustery day in the Salish Sea, but Captain Gabe, Laura, and I had an awesome group of folks on the Sea Lion and we headed north into San Juan Channel on the lookout for all sorts of wildlife! There was a report of a lone male Bigg’s killer whale in Canadian waters so we headed that way and spied a bald eagle in the trees on Spieden Island and some harbor porpoises nearby!

We arrived on scene shortly...

Naturalist Alexandria | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 PM | June 18th, 2019

Today was a great day on the water!  We started out the day with a report of Bigg’s Killer Whales off Waldron Island.  We decided to head north to go check out these reports.

Today was a pretty windy day out on the water so we were happy to hear that conditions were calmer through San Juan Channel and up to Boundary Pass where these whales were spotted.  This was great news because based on the wind trends we had...

Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 06/17/19 | 12:00pm

What an unbelievably special day out on the water! The sun was shining brightly in the sky and filled everyone with excitement immediately. Captain Erick, naturalist Piper and I took our largest boat, the M/V Sealion out of Friday harbor towards promising prospects up north. We went up through the San Juan Channel, past Flattop Island and into Boundary Pass.

With Canada in the distance, we spotted our whales off the north point of Stuart...

Olivia | June 16, 2019 | M/V Kestrel | 11:00am / 3:00pm 

What an incredible adventure Captain Gabe and I had out on the water today! For our 11:00am tour we headed north around Spieden Island where we viewed many Harbor Seals and Bald Eagles. We didn’t hang out too long, as we wanted to continue towards our whale sightings. As we traveled through Swanson Channel near Moresby Island, we caught our first glimpse of a lone male Bigg’s Killer Whale known as T77A who is often seen...

Piper | Sunday, June 16, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 PM

Happy Father’s Day! Today the M/V Sea Lion was crewed by Captain Erick, Erin, and me and we left Friday Harbor with a really awesome group of people who were super engaged and asked some awesome questions about the conservation and ecology of wildlife out in the Salish Sea. We headed north and traveled really far up past Boundary Pass and up Swanson Channel to check out a lone male Bigg’s killer whale, T77A.

T77A, also known as...

Erin | M/V Sea Lion | Friday, June 14, 2019 | 12:00 PM

What a fantastic afternoon out in the Salish Sea! It began with humpback whales directly outside of Friday Harbor. We headed a couple of minutes south before seeing two humpback whales. They were diving at the same time and coming up to the surface at the same time. We got to see both of their flukes come up out of the water, and the whales were identified as Heather and Raptor, who are two female humpback whales. After seeing...