Haleigh | M/V Kestrel | July 3, 2022 | 10:00 am

Today’s whale and wildlife excursion aboard M/V Kestrel reaffirmed the title of our Adventure Tour! Guests suited up in the rain and endured the gusts of wind as we traveled north through the San Juan Channel. We made our way to White Rock to scan for wildlife. All along the rocky crevices, pelagic birds like Glaucous-Winged Gulls and Pigeon Guillemots burrowed into a nesting formation. At the water’s edge, Harbor Seals hauled out...

Haleigh | M/V Sea Lion | October 11, 2021 | 12:00 pm

Humpback whales have been sighted almost every day somewhere in the Salish Sea this fall. As we made our way south today, we were scanning for the large blows out in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Continuing in a southwest direction, we were hoping to follow up on some reported Humpbacks. Sure enough, we made it far enough to see the blows in the distance, just southeast of Victoria, BC. Multiple blows caught our passengers' eyes...

Olivia | M/V Sea Lion | April 23rd, 2021 | 13:00

Kicking off the weekend, Captain Pete decided to start the trip by heading inner island through Upright Passage, eventually turning south into Lopez Sound. Just off Coleville Island, we spotted a large spout as it shot above the surface of the water. This spout belonged to a Gray Whale that was feeding in about 80 feet of water. This baleen whale feeds on about 2,400 pounds of food every day during the summer feeding months here in the...

Laura | M/V Sea Lion | 4/14/2021 | 1:00PM

Today was such a fun day out on the water!  We headed north bound on M/V Sea Lion, through Presidents Channel, and towards Matia Island.  There was a morning report of Bigg’s killer whales headed SE in The Strait of Georgia near Sucia Island!  Once we arrived on scene, we were thrilled to start seeing blows to the side of Puffin Island.  This family was identified at the T49As and 49Bs, a well-known family of two sisters and all their...

Olivia | M/V Sea Lion | April 12th, 2021 | 13:00

What a clear day in the San Juan Islands! Not only could we see Koma Kulshan (Mount Baker) standing tall from the North Cascades, but we could also see Tahoma (Mount Rainier) to the south! You know it is a special day in the Salish Sea when both volcanoes are making an appearance. Starting off the trip, Captain Sarah took us south through San Juan Channel passing heaps of Rhinoceros Auklets. On the southern side of Salmon Bank, we...

Olivia | M/V Sea Lion | April 6th, 2021 | 13:00

We already knew it would be a great day out on the water with Mount Baker making an appearance on the horizon. Our active volcano in the North Cascades is referred to as “Koma Kulshan”, meaning white sentinel with a side missing and known for being the nesting place for the thunderbird! After dipping north through San Juan Channel, we eventually moved inland to creep our way closer towards Anacortes. Almost all the way there, we came...

Olivia | M/V Kestrel | July 24th, 2020 | 14:00

“No one will protect what they don’t care about; and no one will care about what they have never experienced.”

-David Attenborough

I do not even know where to begin with writing tonight’s blog. I have been a naturalist in New Zealand and the San Juan Islands for a total of 4 years now and have never had such a profoundly spectacular trip as I did this afternoon. We left the dock with no reports of orca in the area and decided to go see...

Olivia | July 23rd, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30pm

Starting off our evening sunset trip, Captain Erick and I headed north with our passengers through the San Juan Channel passing between Spring Passage and up to Presidents Channel on the east side of Waldron Island. This island area is a hot spot for Harbor Porpoise which did not disappoint as we saw heaps swimming about the entire way. So much so, that we continued seeing them everywhere in high volumes up until we stumbled across a T...

On Friday we went up north! We started our daily search for cetaceans by heading up near Flattop Island to both look at some Harbor Seals and Bald Eagles on this Federally protected island and also look in several different channels to see if any whales could be spotted. None yet so we headed east now through one of my favorite channels in the islands, President Channel! It runs between Orcas and Waldron Island so our journey east was framed by steep wooded slopes on Orcas and...

I don’t know if y’all remember the ‘90’s but I sure do. The biggest thing and maybe one of the more unfortunate things that I do remember are, of course, frosted tips. You probably remember these and have a general idea about how they are engineered into hair. You may even no be experiencing a wave of nostalgia as an NSYNC song plays in your head. But what you probably don’t know is that some marine mammals are still really into the ‘90’s…

            We started off this Sunday trip...