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...

Olivia | July 21st, 2019 | M/V kestrel | 11:00am

Every day is completely different and unique, especially with whales that can travel over 100 miles in a day. Today, however, they decided to make our job very easy! Just as we left Friday Harbor, and I mean barely out of the harbor, we came across the T46B’s of Bigg’s Killer Whales. They continued to hug the shoreline and travel north. Captain Gabe and I adore seeing this family because their young calf has Leucism, a condition where...

Piper | Saturday, July 20, 2019 | M/V Kestrel | 11:00 AM

The Salish Sea was a veritable whale soup today as Captain Gabe and I took a group of wonderful folks out to explore aboard the M/V Kestrel! We started out leaving the docks in Friday Harbor with a majestic bald eagle soaring overhead! Two more bald eagles graced our trip with their presence shortly after, another one flying past and the third eagle perched on Flattop Island, a national wildlife refuge.

Along the shores of...

Laura C. | 7/19/2019 | M/V Kestrel | 11:00am

Today was absolutely exquisite on M/V Kestrel!  We had such a great time observing all the diverse wildlife found in the Salish Sea!  Our Captain Gabe rounded the bend out of Friday Harbor and we already had our first sighting, a bald eagle!  This eagle looked like he/she was supervising the vessel traffic in and out of the harbor from above and took this job very seriously! 

On our way to find whales we stumbled across some harbor seals...

Olivia | July 17th, 2019 | M/V Kestrel | 11:00am / 3:00pm

What an adventurous Adventure Tour on our M/V Kestrel with Captain Gabe! We had a morning trip with 22 passengers and an evening private charter with a fabulous work group for their team bonding. For both the 11:00am and 3:00pm trips, we saw the same Cetaceans within our waters.

In the morning we decided to head north around San Juan Island and eventually end up in Haro Strait where our first reported whale sighting was. On...