Jordan | M/V Osprey | 07/28/2021 12:30pm

What a fantastic day out on the water! Somewhere wore their lucky whale socks because we saw not only one but two different species of whales!!

As the crew and I headed down south, we passed through the San Juan Channel. As we scanned the Lopez Island shoreline, we quickly found a humpback whale!!

The behemoth cruised through the water effortlessly as he headed out through turbulent waters to open sea. His breathe shot out high above the...

Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 07/25/2021 10:00am

What a lovely day out on the water.

Captain Pete and I headed south down the San Juan Channel and out towards open waters. We searched around the southern shores of Lopez Island looking in calm waters for any blows. Not finding anything just yet, we spread our search further south out into open waters.

We stopped by some rocks where we spotted Steller sea lions! These huge pinnipeds climbed up the steep rock face and barked at each other as...

Jordan | M/V Kestrel | 05/15/2021 1:30pm

We were all really excited to get out on the water as Captain Brian and I gathered our new friends and boated out of Friday Harbor.

We heard whispers of something exciting down south, so we boated down the Channel and out into open waters. Boating out towards the Olympic Peninsula, we reached an area called Middle Bank where we started to see boats! As we approached, we began to see blows and wow it was beautiful!

The mottled gray and white...

Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 04/18/2021 |1:00pm

Today was one of the most incredible trips of the season! I felt so grateful that all my guests got to experience such a lucky tour.

It began as a normal day as we enjoyed the Sunday sunshine in Friday Harbor. Everyone felt excited but a little nervous about what we may see during the trip. Captain Pete and I hopped on our boat, the Sea Lion, and headed down south towards the southern tip of San Juan.

As we approached Cattle Point lighthouse...

M/V Sea Lion| Sunday, October 13th, 2019 | Naturalist Alexandria

What a full day we had today!  With fall in full swing here on San Juan Island, it sure turned out to be the perfect fall day! The sunshine was out as we departed on our trip aboard M/V Sea Lion and we had already heard of a report of orcas in Rosario Strait!

We headed out of Friday Harbor and aimed towards that report.  On our way we were lucky enough to see some Harbor porpoise swimming by us, these critters are...

M/V Sea Lion | August 26, 2019 | 1:30 PM | Naturalist Alexandria

What a fantastic day we had on the water!  When we started out our trip we had reports of orcas in Cattle Pass.  As we loaded the boat and left the harbor we made a right hand turn in San Juan Channel taking us south towards this sighting. 

By the time we reached these animals they had worked their way north towards us so we were able to meet up with them in San Juan Channel right off of Lopez Island.  As we approached...

Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 07/22/19 | 1:30pm

What an adventure!

Today, Captain Pete, Naturalist Erin and I headed out of Friday Harbor with no reports of whales!

We searched and searched the surrounding area. We boated up through the channel between Shaw and Lopez and down under Decatur Island and through the Lopez Passage. We headed across the Rosario Strait, all the while looking for any signs of wildlife.

We made it all the way to Whidbey Island and here we found a blow really...

Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 06/07/19 | 5:30 Sunset

As we gathered for our tour, I noticed how wonderfully small our group was! We definitely were lucky to have lots of space to walk around the boat and chat with new friends! Captain Gabe and I took the Sea Lion out of Friday Harbor and headed off in search of some wildlife!

Luckily, we heard reports from other whale watching boats right off the bat! So, we sped off towards the east. We had a fantastic tour of all the islands as we wound...

What an awesome day today shaped out to be!  This trip started out wonderfully- great group of people and a beautiful day!  We didn't have any firm reports other than some possible sightings past Victoria, so we decided to start scanning San Juan Channel!  Lucky for us some orcas were picked up near the Lopez Island Ferry Terminal!

How perfect was this!  We were already headed in this direction and almost on scene!  Our guests immediately pointed out dorsal fins in the near distance...

Today Captain Gabe and I left the dock on the Kittiwake with a boat full of excited passengers, sun in the sky and reports of something a little different than our average tour: Transients (cue dramatic music)

Transients, unlike the Southern Resident Killer Whales who subsist mostly on King Salmon, spend their time actively hunting other marine mannals. Here in the Salish Sea, their favorite snack is Harbor seals.

As we left Friday Harbor we headed South through the San Juan Channel...