Piper | Friday, September 13, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 PM

Captain Pete, naturalist Alexandria, and I headed out of Friday Harbor on the Sea Lion with an awesome group of people. We headed south into San Juan Channel and upon reaching Cattle Pass we had an awesome view of Cattle Point Lighthouse with the cloud-ringed Olympic Peninsula in the background, but our attention was drawn more towards the rock outcropping on the other side of the boat because there lied a haul-out of...

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

What a great day near San Juan Island! Captain Gabe, Co-Naturalist Piper and I headed south through the San Juan Channel to aim for the Strait of Juan de Fuca in hopes of seeing potential whale sightings. We made a stop at Whale Rocks where we were able to view [and listen] to heaps of Steller’s Sea Lions! Loving these large Pinnipeds, it was so great to hear their deep bellows and watch them snooze, play, and swim in the high...

Erick | Tuesday, September 10, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | Noon

Today, Captain Pete and I took a fantastic group of passengers out on a noon trip to search the Salish Sea for some fun critters. It was another beautiful day that was the perfect fall temperature. It started out very foggy and dripping and by the afternoon was warm and sunny. Capt. Pete and I went north and immediately saw a how bunch of Harbor Porpoises hunting in the strong currents around Point Caution! As we journeyed...

Olivia | September 8th, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00pm

What a fun day Captain Sarah and I had with all our passengers on M/V Sea Lion! We started off the trip by heading north where we immediately began seeing Harbor Porpoises rounding San Juan Island through Spieden Channel. After taking a quick stop at Spieden Island to see Bald Eagles, Harbor Seals, and heaps of Mouflon Sheep, we continued towards Stuart Island where we ran into our solo Bigg’s Killer Whale, T49A3! This goofy...

M/V Sea Lion | Naturalist Alexandria | Saturday, September 7, 2019 | 1:30PM

What a fantastic trip we had today!  We boarded onto M/V  Sea Lion and knew that there were orcas in our range but nothing could have prepared us for the day we were about to have! 

As we headed out we made a left hand turn and started heading north up San Juan Channel.  We knew that one of the reports we had received was just off of Waldron Island so we headed that way.

We met up with this group of Biggs...

M/V Sea Lion | Naturalist Alexandria | Saturday, September 6, 2019 | 1:30PM

We had a great day today out on the water!  We started out our trip heading south through San Juan Channel.  Within minutes we were on scene with Biggs Killer whales that had been spotted in San Juan Channel.  We watched them as they swam back and forth off of Lopez Island trending south west. 

After spending some time with these orcas we headed out of San Juan Channel towards some of the banks in Strait of...

M/V Sea Lion | September 5th, 2019 | Naturalist Alexandria

What a great day we had today!  We were so excited when we got on board M/V Sea Lion and knew that we had reports of orcas within our range.  To make matters even more awesome, these sightings were of Resident Orcas- an Ecotype that we have seen only a handful of times this season.  This day promised to be quit the treat!  We headed out into San Juan Channel and began the trek south to where these incredible animals were...

Olivia | September 4th, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30pm

What an incredible day aboard M/V Sea Lion! Captain Sarah, Co-Naturalist Jordan and I headed north through the San Juan Channel in hopes to see some whale reports that were rumored from the morning. Initially we were going to head around the tip of San Juan Island and into Haro Strait, when we last minute heard of some Bigg’s Killer Whales that were closer and coming our way.

All along our trip, both heading north and later on in...

Piper | Tuesday, September 3, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30 PM

Captain Pete and naturalists Olivia and I were aboard the M/V Sea Lion today with a fabulous group of folks which were ready to head out and see some Salish Sea wildlife! We left the marina and headed northwest towards Moresby Island in the Canadian Southern Gulf Islands. Along our route we spotted some harbor porpoises surfacing off Spieden Island, with their tiiiiiiiny dorsal fins popping up here and there. We also had...

Piper | Monday, September 2, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30 PM

Today was a beautiful, sunny holiday Monday and Captain Pete, Erin, and I had an awesome group of guests aboard the Sea Lion. We had a report of orcas coming south towards San Juan Island from Canadian waters and so we went north to meet up with them!

When we were in San Juan Channel on our way to the orcas, just north of Jones Island, we came across two humpback whales traveling along! These two large baleen whales were only...