Captain Pete and I were taking off for our second trip of the day along with a handful of cheerful guests. We had been with some transient orcas earlier today who had swum out of our reach for our sunset trip, so we were hoping to find a humpback hanging out nearby. We headed down the San Juan Channel as the wind started to pick up and cause the waters to get a bit choppy. Once we reached Whale Rocks, we had to stop and say hi to our Steller Sea lions who seem to have chosen to...

Captain Mike, our excited guests, and I took off down the San Juan Channel on a peaceful Saturday afternoon. Firstly, Captain Mike went through the inside of Turn Island and came out at a harbor seal haul out to observe some seals who happened to have some pups with them! We then continued down the channel and as we approached Cattle Pass, with surprisingly calm waters, we saw some sea lions posted up on Whale rocks. Some of these sea lions were busy cooling off in the water and...

It was humpback whales galore today near Friday Harbor.  We saw one humpback whale just outside of the harbor in San Juan Channel.  We then decided to head south and stop to see some harbor seals and Steller’s sea lions at whale rocks.  Steller’s spend their summers on the coast and up in Alaska for their breeding season, but this time of year we still see some juveniles that like to hang around.  We then got another report of a second humpback whale a little further south of San...

Jordan | June 18, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30 sunset

We had such a great group of people today! Everyone was full of enthusiasm and eagerness to see wildlife. It felt like the first real day of summer; sitting on the boat by the dock, it was actually hot! The sun shone brightly as we headed out of Friday Harbor for our 5:30 sunset tour. Captain Gabe led us south through the San Juan channel, past Cattle Point and into the shallow waters of the Salmon Bank.

Along the way, we found a...

Captain Mike and I were up early today and excited to see what was out there! Southern resident orcas had been hanging around the islands for the past couple of days and we could not wait to get a better look at them! We, along with our 11 smiling guests, headed down San Juan Channel to go look for some orcas. We first took a good look at the South end of Lopez and saw some harbor seals hauled out along with 3 bald eagles perched up in the nearby trees and rocks. We then headed...

Jordan | June 15, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 noon

Today the Sealion journeyed out of Friday Harbor for the 12:00 noon tour with Captain Pete, Naturalist Rachel and myself. Reports of the J pod were coming in from the southwest side of San Juan Island, the same region this group was found yesterday! Perhaps there is a great group of salmon in that area.

Our boat headed south towards Cattle Pass and we stopped at Whale Island, a tiny island off the tip of Cattle Point. Here we saw...

[Wednesday, 6/13/18 - M/V Kestrel - 10:00AM - Naturalist Erick]

Today we had another ‘June-ary’ day as the morning started out with rain but broke to a delightful sunny day. Captain Mike and I took a smaller group of folks out to search for all the fun morning critters out in the Salish Sea. We headed north through San Juan and Spieden Channels until we made it to the other side of Boundary Pass near South Pender Island. Here there was a large group of Bigg’s Orcas feeding and...

[Monday, 6/11/18 - M/V Kestrel - 2:00PM - Naturalist Erick]

Happy Monday Everyone! We hope your weekend was as good as ours, and it’s only going to get better this week! This Monday afternoon Captain Gabe and I took a super fun group of people out on a trip aboard M/V Kestrel. We started by heading north through San Juan Channel. We traveled around the northern side of San Juan and Henry Islands. Just as we rounded Henry Island we saw some blows in the distance around Kellett...

Today guests aboard M/V Sea Lion were treated to an awesome day out on the water with a humpback whale!

The trip started out gorgeous, it was a sunny day and the islands were looking photogenic as ever!  Guests boarded M/V Sea Lion and headed north beginning our search for whales.  Captain Mike received reports of humpbacks on the east side of Orcas Island, so we headed over to Rosario Straight to see what we could find!  Sure enough once we got on scene our first views were of a...

[Sunday, 5/27/18 - M/V Kestrel - 2:00PM - Naturalist Erick]

This Sunday was another beautiful, sunny day during Memorial Day Weekend. Captain Mike and I headed out on M/V Kestrel to go find some super cool creatures to watch and learn about. We went north first towards Flattop Island and made a quick stop there to look at some Harbor Seals that were sunning themselves on rocky shoreline. There was a ton of them resting there and a few blinked their sleepy eyes back at us. Then a...