An afternoon with an incredible Southern Resident family, the L54s! 

Maxx K. | M/V Kestrel | 09/02/2021 | 2:00pm

    It was a beautiful afternoon on the Salish Sea! Seas were calm, the dignified Olympic mountains peered down over the islands and Southern Residents were rumored to be in the area. When Captain Solan and I left Friday Harbor, we weren’t entirely sure what our game plan was: the last reports of L54 and her family were pretty far south of us and trending further...

Olivia | September 30th, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00pm

Today was SO magical! We left Friday Harbor heading north through the San Juan Channel and cutting through Spieden Channel in order to end up near Henry Island. All along the way we saw swimming Harbor Seals and Harbor Porpoises! However, what really took our breath away was seeing a big male Southern Resident Killer Whale! It was beautiful right in the sunshine! I may use an excessive amount of exclamation points in this blog...

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...

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...

[Monday, 6/11/18 - M/V Kestrel - 2:00PM - Naturalist Erick]

Happy Monday Everyone! We hope your weekend was as good as ours, and it’s only going to get better this week! This Monday afternoon Captain Gabe and I took a super fun group of people out on a trip aboard M/V Kestrel. We started by heading north through San Juan Channel. We traveled around the northern side of San Juan and Henry Islands. Just as we rounded Henry Island we saw some blows in the distance around Kellett...

[Naturalist Sarah – 10/24/2017 – M/V Sea Lion – 12:00]

Today felt more like a summer day than a late October departure! With clear blue skies and a great group of guests Captain Brian and I were excited to explore the Salish Sea on the search for whales.

Leaving the harbor we elected to head north towards the Canadian Gulf Islands. Unusually for this time of year we had a report of killer whales before leaving the dock. There had been vocalizations on the hydrophone reported in the...

09/27/17 – M/V Sea Lion – 12 PM

With great morning reports, M/V Sea Lion departed Friday Harbor Marina in search of Southern Resident orcas. The warm air giving the illusion that summer hadn’t left just yet, passengers relaxed in the sun on the bow as we headed to the south side of San Juan Island. Just as we rounded Cattle Point, there they were! Off in the distance were black knife-like dorsal fins cutting the surface after a bush of mist exhalation. Captain Gabe slowed our speed...

[Sarah M – 08/03/2017 – M/V Sea Lion – 01:30pm & 05:30pm]

Yesterday the M/V Sea Lion had another pair of great trips in the Salish Sea. Even though we are still experiencing smoky conditions, the wildlife sightings have been off the charts amazing and unaffected by the atmospheric conditions.

01:30pm Afternoon Classic Whale Watch

Wildlife

On our afternoon trip we left Friday Harbor and headed south towards Cattle Pass, encountering harbor porpoise and harbor seals as we cruised...

(06/17/2017 -Sea lion 01:30 pm Departure)

Today we left Friday Harbor only needing to travel about 10 minutes before reaching our first pod of whales! We first encounter a group of transient, or mammal eating orcas, on the Eastern side of San Juan Island.  These whales were specifically the T36A’s as well at the T65B’s.  These two families were seen traveling together throughout the entire day today and we were lucky enough to see them complete a kill and engage in some social...

We had a beautiful, full day of whale watching on the M/V Sea Lion yesterday. With three trips planned, we had the opportunity to spend the day all around the islands in search of our marine mammal friends. On our morning trip, we made a turn down south, basking in the views of Griffin Bay, Cattle Point, Cape San Juan, and American Camp before arriving near Eagle Point. Surprise, surprise...Spirit and Solstice were in the area! This mom and adult son pair have been foraging for...