[7/29/30- M/V Sea Lion- Kelsey, Naturalist- 5:30PM]

The group of passengers on today’s M/V Sea Lion sunset trip were bumped up to Level Expert Whale Watchers, because they sighted their own whale that no one had seen all day! We do not use sonar or fancy equipment to find whales and other wildlife in the sea when we are on our trips, so we need everyone putting their eyes to the water and looking for cool animals. Today’s group did just that!

We were headed from Friday Harbor on San...

[Naturalist Erick D., M/V Kestrel, 7/26/17, 2:00PM]

On Wednesday, Captain Gabe and I took a full boat of excited folks along on the M/V Kestrel to go look for some marine wildlife.  That day it was a bit windy down south so we headed north to go look in Boundary Pass, Haro Strait and in between the southernmost of the Southern Gulf Islands just across the border in British Columbia.

Our First stop was to look at some Bald Eagles around Sentinel Island. There was one perched...

(7/28/17- M/V Kestrel- 10AM)

Today we left Friday Harbor with no reports of whales in the area, not an uncommon occurrence out on the water.  We cruised around and looked at some wildlife at Flattop Island, including a few bald eagles and a number of harbor seals with their pups.  We then got a report of a humpback whale on the south side of Vancouver Island so we headed that way! 

We got to the area of the whale sighting and watched as the humpback did a large number of shallow...

[7/22/17- M/V Sea Lion- Kelsey, Naturalist- 1:30PM]

To kick off the day, a drizzle of rain coated the island- some of the first rain in two months! Whoop! We were feeling refreshed as we departed Friday Harbor and San Juan Island in search of whales and other wildlife. Hopes were high and there was determination in our eyes. We were ready for whatever the day would bring us!

We turned south and went through Cattle Pass into the Haro Straight, and entering through the Straight of Juan...

Lauren Fritz, M/V Kestrel, 07/19/17, 2:00 pm Tour

Wow! We had quite the epic journey on M/V Kestrel today. Cruising across the bluest seas at our quick speeds really allowed us to make the most of the day. Humpbacks reported down south of Victoria in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, 25 miles away? No problem for the Kestrel! Captain Gabe and I decided to head straight down San Juan Channel and out into the Strait, stopping near Whale Rocks to check out harbor seals, beautiful bull kelp...

[Erick D., M/V Sea Lion, 7/12/17, 1:30PM] Yesterday, Captain Mike, Sarah, and I took a full boat of eager folks out ot search for some whales. Sometimes the whales are a little bit harder to find than other days. Even though whales are massive creatures, even Humpbacks the bigger ones around here pale in comparison to the immense amount of water that they swim in. We headed south through San Juan Channel, out through Cattle Pass, and into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The strait is one...

[7/12/17- M/V Kestrel- 2:00PM]

Wednesday’s are hump days, and hump days are meant for humpback whales! It was another beautiful day with sunny skies as we moseyed outside of Friday Harbor from San Juan Island and headed north to Canadian waters. We cruised over the calm waters with no problems at all, simply enjoying the scenery and the windless skies.  We slowed down and approached a small little outcrop of rocks by the East Point lighthouse on Saturna Island, and we saw a plethora...

7/10/17 – Sea Lion 1:30 & 5:30 PM Departure

We spent the day out in Rosario Strait watching one unidentified sub-adult humpback whale.  Guests commonly ask us how we find our whale sightings and if we go to specific areas each day.  San Juan Safaris is a part of the Pacific Whale Watch Association, which is a prestigious company dedicated to ensuring the highest quality ecotourism out in the Salish Sea.  With that comes the variety of whale watching companies leaving from 19...

7/7/17 - Kestrel 2:00 PM Departure

Today we left Friday Harbor at 2pm and couldn’t ask for better reports to start our trip with.  We headed just a bit North inside San Juan channel and came across ‘Divot’, a humpback whale commonly seen in this area.  We watched as he surfaced regularly and displayed consistent dive times.  He also had exceptionally good fluke out dives, with the underside of the tail fully visible. 

We then made our way to the North side of Shaw Island and hung out...

Lauren Fritz, Naturalist, M/V Sea Lion, 6/20/17, 1:30 pm & 5:30 pm tours

Anyone who's around me long enough has fallen victim to my ramblings about how amazing humpback whales are. I spend a significant portion of my year with these whales down in Maui, one of their main breeding grounds, so it's very exciting to see them up here in one of their feeding grounds as well! It's difficult not to marvel over the amazing migration of 2,500-3,000 miles that these whales make every year -...