Lauren | M/V Kestrel | September 21st, 2024 | 2:00 pm

The T049 matriline owned the inter-island zone today. Reports were coming in with members from this famous family along multiple sides of Lopez Island. T049C was headed north in San Juan Channel, T049A1 was heading south in Rosario Strait and the rest of the T049A1’s (minus T049A2/Jude) were hanging out in Thatcher Pass! Captain Eric and I were excited to get on the water for this T049 family affair, but where to begin? T049C/Nielson made that...

Maxx K. | M/V Kestrel | 06/28/2022 | 2:00pm

    Sometimes it's really nice to mix things up. We are super fortunate for pretty stellar weather during the summer: sunny skies and little wind. Though every now and again Mother Nature mixes it up on us, and today was one of those days. 

    Kestrel zoomed out of Friday Harbor southbound, shooting out of Cattle Pass and rounding the southern shores of Lopez Island. We stopped at Davidson Rock where we heard rumors of a Humpback whale. 

 ...

Haleigh | M/V Sea Lion | July 20, 2021 | 10:00am

One of the fun parts about morning trips is you get to really be a part of the search for whales. None of the whales in our area are tagged, so we rely on visual sightings to search for any wildlife out here. Fortunately, sightings by other boats are shared through the Pacific Whale Watch Association’s online network. As we left the harbor on our Tuesday morning trip, we decided to start our search southbound.

When searching for...

Jordan | June 22, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 noon

What an amazing day out on the water! Captain Mike, Naturalist Rachel and I voyaged out of Friday Harbor towards a report of whales traveling along the east side of Lopez Island. We traveled north up the Upright channel where we saw two bald eagles perching in trees near their giant nest! It was very cool to see this pair, mated for life, nestled within the huge trees that they called home.

We then traveled down the east side of...

Monday, April 9 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 Noon

Captain Mike and I got the Sea Lion off the docks today with a great little group of folks onboard and as we left Friday Harbor we made a plan to head south in search of orcas. Passing by Cattle Point Lighthouse we got a view of a colony of Steller’s sea lions hauled out on Whale Rocks with a juvenile bald eagle perched atop! After getting a nice whiff of their stank we decided to check out Salmon Bank, an area south of San Juan Island...

After being in the rain for the past two trips Captain Mike, Sarah and I left the dock today with sunny skies over head. But, what was even better then the sunshine were the orcas that were reported to be right in our "back yard". After motoring for about ten minutes  we saw blows in the distance in-between Lopez and Shaw island, a sight that was welcomed by our guests. I quickly identified the small group as our five transient orcas known as the T065A group. The T065A's just happen...