Erick | Thursday, March 14, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00

This Thursday still felt a little bit like winter. It was quite chilly with a grey sky above. Captain Mike and I headed north to go check out a report of Orcas up in Boundary Pass. We traveled through San Juan Channel and headed past Spieden and Stewart Islands into Boundary Pass. Right in Between Gooch Island and Moresby Island we saw some blows up ahead! It was not just one but two families of Orcas. Both of these families...

Erick | Wednesday, March 13, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion| | 12:00 

This Wednesday was one of the first days it really has felt like spring here in the islands. The sun was out and there was only a slight breeze in the air. Captain Pete and I took a good-sized crew out to go see what wonderful wildlife was also out enjoying the sunshine. We headed south after we left Friday Harbor. We rounded Turn Island and just as we made our way into Griffin Bay we saw some blows just ahead in San Juan...

Erick | Saturday, March 9, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 

If you can imagine a perfect March day, then that day was today. The sun was shining bright, there were a few fluffy white clouds hanging out above the islands, and the breeze was slight. Captain Mike, Sarah, and I took a pretty large group out aboard M/V Sea Lion. We left from Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. And headed south into San Juan Channel. The channels in between the main islands of the San Juan Islands are not very...

Erick | February 23, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | Noon

As the short month of February approaches its end we do our last weekend-only trips from Friday Harbor. Once March starts we will be starting daily trips aboard M/V Sea Lion departing from Friday Harbor at noon. This Saturday, Captain Mike and I had a wonderful trip with a very small group of passengers. I think folks were afraid of the cold so it ended up being only two hardy folks aboard wanting to go out and see what was out there in...

Guests aboard M/V Sea Lion along with Cpt. Gabe, naturalist Alexandria and I were excited to get on the water on this rainy September day with a report of transient and southern resident orcas in our area. Eager to get everyone on the boat and ready to pick up speed we took off to go find these animals ourselves. 

As of earlier, the transient orca report had been spotted by kayakers and no one else, so we went to the general area to try and find them again. With no luck or dorsals in...

Guests aboard Kestrel along with Cpt. Gabe and I were excited to get on the water with two great reports already within our reach. Headed out the harbor, we decided to go south towards Victoria, where a report of transients, not yet ID’ed, had been picked up. Taking the challenge and curious to see who these animals were, we quickly went down San Juan Channel. 

As we exited the channel through Cattle Pass, we made a pit stop at Whale rocks to greet our Steller Sea lions and even got...

Guests aboard M/V Sea Lion along with naturalist Jordan, Captain Gabe and I were ready to get out on the water on this beautiful September day! After a smokey August, September was starting out pleasantly- sunny and warm days. After around three weeks of not seeing the southern residents in our waters, they had finally came back in. Gosh! We missed them! 

There were reports of a subgroup of L-pod around- the L12s not too far away from the harbor. The rest of the residents were...

Guests aboard Kestrel along with Cpt. Mike and I were excited to get on the water with a report of transient orcas already moving East from us. About an hour travel time for us to get on scene with these whales, Mike and I were eager to get everyone on the boat and ready to pick up speed. 

As of earlier, the day had been calm and sunny but now the wind was starting to pick up and the clouds were starting to show up. On our way over to these whales, we crossed San Juan Channel to take...

Jordan | August 22, 2018 | M/V Kestrel | 10:00 trip

This morning started off really crazily amazing! Captain Gabe and I headed out of Friday Harbor and headed south down through the San Juan Channel and almost immediately found a Steller sea lion eating a skate! Skates are a species of fish that are related to rays. So, the sea lion was splashing around at the surface, throwing around this flat floppy fish and ripping it apart! It was so exciting to witness the circle of life at work...

Leaving the harbor aboard M/V Sea Lion Captain Pete, naturalist Alexandria and myself were excited to get out on the water and see what orcas were hanging around East Point! We had received a report of transient orcas up that way earlier and I️ was eager to see them after about two weeks of focusing on the resident orca pods. We decided to head up the San Juan Channel and into Boundary Pass getting the beautiful views of the Canadian Gulf Islands on one side and the Northern islands...