Laura C. | M/V Kestrel | 8/12/2019 | 11:00am

Today was such a wonderful day out on the water!  M/V Kestrel headed to Flattop Island for our first stop to appreciate the diverse wildlife in the area!  There, we found some harbor porpoises, harbor seals and bald eagles!  A harbor seal was making a lot of noise and vocalizations as a large congregation of animals basked along the rocks.  It is weaning season for a lot of youngsters and some may be calling out for their mothers, as they...

Piper | Thursday, August 8, 2019 | M/V Kestrel | 11:00 AM

This morning the skies in the San Juan Islands started out quite gray, which in my opinion makes for wonderful sighting weather, and that proved true today! As Captain Gabe and I got the Kestrel off the docks and out of the marina, a report of Bigg’s killer whales ran across the radio! They were all the way down by the Olympic Peninsula, so we hung a right and headed south through San Juan Channel.

When we reached Cattle Point...

Laura C. | M/V Kittiwake | 8-5-2019 | 11:00am

M/V Kittiwake provided a beautiful wildlife tour all the way in the Straight of Georgia today!  We had morning reports of humpback whales south of Point Roberts, and once we arrived in that vicinity, we were happily greeted by beautiful humpbacks fluking into the horizon!  The pair was slowly foraging through the area, traveling at about 2 knots and heading northwest.  Their slow deliberate movements at the surface allowed passengers to...

Piper | Saturday, August 3, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30 PM

On this beautiful Saturday afternoon in the San Juan Islands, Captain Gabe, naturalist Olivia, and I took a lovely group of people out to scan for whales and wildlife! We headed south into San Juan Channel after leaving the marina and just before we got to Cattle Pass we spotted a couple groups of harbor porpoises swimming around the boat!

We continued south of San Juan Island into the Strait of Juan de Fuca where we came upon...

Jordan | M/V Kestrel | 07/30/19 | 11:00am

Today, Pete and I took the Kestrel out of Friday Harbor up towards the north, just scanning around all the different islands to find some wildlife.

As we boated up through the San Juan Channel, we stopped by White Rocks to view some harbor seals! These chunky, floppy animals basked in the sunlight and enjoyed napping as the tides slowly approached their rocks.

We continued onwards up into Canadian Islands. We crossed Boundary Pass and entered...

Erin | M/V Sea Lion | Saturday, July 27, 2019 | 1:30PM 

It was a lovely afternoon in the Salish Sea. We began our trip heading north out of Friday Harbor. We headed up San Juan Channel and got some great views of the surrounding islands as we made our way toward Boundary Pass. As we went up the channel, we saw many harbor porpoises coming up to the surface as they travelled. Harbor porpoises are one of the smallest porpoises in the world. They can dive to depths of 400 feet and hold...

Jordan | M/V Kestrel | 07/26/19 | 3:00pm

Today was the best humpback day ever!!

It all started with Captain Gabe and I taking our vessel out of Friday Harbor and setting off north in hopes of finding some wildlife.

Before we even fully left the harbor, however, we spotted a gorgeous bald eagle! This massive bird sat perched in a towering tree overlooking the water. He surveyed the surrounding waters for any prey. Since they’re huge scavengers, they often steal from other birds. Right...

Olivia | July 25th, 2019 | M/V Kestrel | 3:00pm

Captain Pete and I headed out this afternoon on a search for whales in our area. We decided to head north through the San Juan Channel and stop at White Rocks to catch a view of our Harbor Porpoises and their pups as they napped and swam near the water’s edge. After chatting about these small Pinnipeds, we continued on through Boundary Pass heading around East Point towards the northern side of Saturna Island.

Along our route, Mount...

Piper | Wednesday, July 24th, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30PM & 5:30PM   Both of our Classic tours today aboard the M/V Sea Lion headed north into San Juan Channel and eventually made our way to the wonderful Canadian waters of the Strait of Georgia, just north of Saturna Island where we enjoyed views of Mount Baker near Bellingham, the Vancouver skyline, and Point Robert's, a funny section of the US that hangs off of Canada!    We also got to witness the majesty of an awesome humpback...

Naturalist Erin | M/V Kestrel | 3:00 PM | Tuesday, July 23, 2019

This was a trip for the books! We headed north out of Friday Harbor and headed back towards where we had seen whales on our previous trip, in the Strait of Georgia. We stopped past White Rock, which is a very interesting location. It is important for both birds and harbor seals. There were lots of harbor seals hauled out on the rocks, some of which had pups! There was one pup that was moving around on the rocks. It was...