Jordan | August 18, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30 trip

What a beautiful evening trip in the San Juan Islands! As the sun started to set behind the picturesque clouds, we headed out of Friday Harbor to search for our whales. We headed south through the San Juan Channel and towards Victoria on Vancouver Island.

Before we reached Canadian waters, we found the whales! Suddenly we were surrounded by Southern Resident whales all around our boat! It was so exciting seeing the magnificent...

Jordan | June 14, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30 sunset

The Sealion, along with Captain Pete and myself, voyaged out of Friday Harbor for the 5:30 sunset tour. Luckily, J Pod just recently returned to the San Juan islands causing excitement amongst the entire region! Today, this large group of Southern Resident whales decided that the southwest waters of San Juan Island was the best place to be. So, Captain Pete led us south past Cattle Point and up to Eagle Point where we saw our first...

[Lauren Fritz, M/V Sea Lion, 08/27/17, 5:30 pm Tour - Final Sunset Tour of the Season]

It's that time of year - the sun is setting earlier and earlier, which means we are saying goodbye to our sunset tours for the season. Today was our last, and Naturalist Kelsey and I were excited to soak up every minute of it. Captain Mike took us out to see a group of Bigg's Killer Whales out in the Strait of Georgia. These were the T65A's, a group of five orcas. Mom is a beautiful 31-year-old...

Today was a fairytale, a pure, Salish Sea, fairytale! Although weather conditions down south were a little bit iffy, with two foot chop and white caps through the Strait of Juan de Fuca and up Haro as well, M/V Sea Lion was headed north, where nothing could stop us! We had flat, calm seas, beautifully reflecting the clear skies above. The most exciting part was the favorable reports of resident orcas on the west side of the island, moving north. As we cruised up San Juan Channel on...

March on San Juan Island usually means lots of rain. This Saturday, though we had a small, sunny break in the rainy forecast which reminded us that summer is just around the corner. Coincidentally so are the killer whales. We turned south out of the harbor with myself, Naturalist Kev, and Captain Mike to head for some reports of Transient Killer Whales hunting in the area. Transient Killer Whales are a little different than our more famous Southern Residents.  They hunt in smaller...

Woo! After a few days without our residents I was feeling a little separation anxiety from them. Not that our whale watches haven't been awesome with the transients but I was missing the regular residents. As we headed out on our 5:30pm sunset whale watch we heard the reports that a mixture of J, K, and L pods were heading our way from Victoria! The whales booked it our way and we caught up with them around Eagle Point and traveled north with them all the way past Lime Kiln to...