Today was super misty as we motored out of the harbor. We couldn’t see very far ahead as the wooded islands, water, and clouds all melded into one. We headed south through Cattle Pass and out into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We first encountered a small group of Harbor Porpoise off of Hein Bank (a shallow area  that is a great feeding area for so many of the marine mammals that inhabit our waters) The group of Harbor porpoises quickly passed us as the followed a small group of fish...

[06/03/2017 - M/V Sea Lion - 12pm]

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You could fill a book with everything that we know about orcas and their social structure. You could also fill a book with everything we don't know about them. Why do they breach? What are they talking about down...

Something magical happens when two very different worlds collide and are able to coexist with each other in harmony, even if just for an hour. The human world aboard M/V Kestrel had a chance to link up with the mesmerizing orca world of the Transient killer whales today off of Green Point on Saturna Island. I've always loved orcas, and have always appreciated their cunning, intelligence, and constant ability to keep us whale-watching humans guessing. But before today, I'd never seen...

So what if there were gale force wind warnings for this afternoon in Friday Harbor? Sea Lion wasn't going to be stopped! We're spoiled by the generally amazing weather and sea conditions here in the San Juan Islands, so even when there's gale force winds out here, it doesn't affect us too much. And, fortunately for us since we were leaving at noon, the wind wasn't supposed to pick up until later in the afternoon. So, with the sun above us and a light breeze behind us, we set off as...

It’s a bit rainy here today in the Pacific Northwest (good one, right?) but that didn’t stop our guests from being excited and enthusiastic about looking for wildlife.  We left Friday Harbor with no whale reports, not uncommon for this time of year.  We decided to head North toward the Canadian Gulf Islands.  As we were traveling we came across some harbor porpoise in the larger channels.  As we continued along our search route we came across a number of bald eagles, both perched and...

Yesterday, we saw a wide diversity of marine mammals. We cruised around the northern San Juan Islands and even went into the Gulf Islands of Canada for a quick bit. We saw a few Harbor Porpoise including a calf which was super tiny and super cute. We also saw several tons of Harbor Seals laying on the rocks around Flattop Island and swimming and twirling in the water. A young one pooped up and took a few minutes to check us out checking him out. We also saw all three species of the...

Today we had the rare opportunity to view four different family groups of transient killer whales. When we pulled away from the dock, reports of killer whales in the Strait of Juan de Fuca brought us south of San Juan Island. On our way down, we encountered all sorts of wildlife, including Steller sea lions, harbor seals, cormorants, harbor porpoises, and even a minke whale!

When we arrived at where the orcas were last reported, we noticed that the group consisted of nine different...

The arrival of fall brings a lot of changes to the Salish Sea and the San Juans. Garry Oaks start to turn rusty brown, the air cools and the wind picks up, and seabirds start morphing into their winter plumage. Fall also brings the arrival of new species that spent the summer busy in the open waters of the Pacific Ocean. Amongst these are the Dall's Porpoise, a small black and white cetacean known for its social nature. 

We had already circumnavigated most of San Juan Island...

On Sunday, Captain Mike, myself, and Hannah set out on yet another sunny adventurous day in the Salish Sea. It was a wee bit windy down south, so we headed north to search within and on the northern edge of our little archipelago here. We skimmed past Orcas Island and Waldron Island two of our taller islands and definitely the ones with enormous coniferous trees hanging on desperately onto the rocky cliffs that rise from the dark blue waters. We approached the Patos Island lighthouse...

Yesterday was probably one of the hottest of the summer here in the San Juan Islands. It got to around 80˚F on land, but once we were on the water it cooled down to a nice pleasant temperature. Today was one of those rare days as well that we did not really go that far. Friday Harbor is on the east side of San Juan Island and usually we make a few stops to see wildlife and eventually make our way to one of the larger straits to see the whales but today we went about a minute outside...