[Wednesday, 5/23/18 - M/V Sea Lion - 12:00 - Naturalist Erick]

This Wednesday, Captain Pete and I headed north on another bright sunny day to the north. We made our first stop at Green Point on Spieden Island. Here, is a normal haul-out spot for Steller Sea Lions. Today, there was still around 8 left. They were all males of different ages lounging on the sunbaked rocks of the point. Soon though, all of these massive Steller Sea Lions will be gone as they migrate northward to their...

[Sunday, 5/20/18 - M/V Sea Lion - 12:00 - Naturalist Erick]

On this sunny day in May, Captain Mike and I took a lovely group of folks out to look for some great wildlife. We headed north through Boundary Pass, up Plumper Sound, and through the windy cliff-bordered waterways of Georgensen Pass into the Strait of Georgia. Out in the the middle of the Strait there were three adult Humpback Whales gathered round each other! They were super close to each other and were gently swimming...

This past evening we all boarded M/V Sea Lion for the first official Sunset Whale Watching Trip of the season!  Myself and Captain Mike were both excited, as this is such a beautiful time to be on the water. 

When we initially headed out, there were no firm reports about what was happening on the water, but Captain Mike had an awesome game plan, and it certainly paid off!  We headed east towards Rosario Strait, and within minutes of being in search mode, we spotted two humpback...

Saturday, May 19th | M/V Sea Lion | Noon

On this sunny May day Captain Mike, naturalist Rachel and I headed north with a great group of folks, up through San Juan Channel and Boundary Pass, searching the Canadian waters under South Pender and Saturna Islands. We got all the way over to the east side of Tumbo Island, part of the Southern Gulf Islands, where we spotted a humpback whale traveling northwest along the coast.

When we saw this behemoth’s flukes we could tell it was a BCX...

Thursday, May 17th | M/V Sea Lion | Noon

Pushing off the docks in Friday Harbor this afternoon, Captain Mike took the Sea Lion to the north, toward Spieden Island, where we found a few remaining Steller’s sea lions lounging on Green Point, savoring the last seconds of laziness before making the trek to Alaska for their breeding season.

Moving through New Channel and up John’s Pass we spotted quite a few bald eagles perched on trees and soaring overhead! We continued up through...

[Sarah – 05/12/2018 – M/V Sea Lion – 12:00pm]

We had a lovely day out on the water full of wildlife and enlightening ecological discussion. Leaving the dock we steered the M/V Sea Lion north through San Juan Channel towards the Canadian Gulf Islands. We took a break in our journey north to check out some Steller’s sea lions hauled out on the rocks at Green Point, before pressing further on in our journey. Communicating with all of the other boats on the water, we decided to take an...

M/V Sea Lion- 5/18

Our trip today on the water was absolutely amazing! We started out the trip on a sunny Friday afternoon, anxiously boarding MV sea lion to see what the day had in store.  Our first stop was to check out some stellar sea lions who will be getting ready to head up to Alaska soon.  After hanging out with these sea lions for a bit, we continued out into --- to see what else we could find.  As we continued out into the open space in between we excitedly saw a blow off...

Wednesday, May 16 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 Noon

The M/V Sea Lion left Friday Harbor today and headed south into the glorious San Juan sunshine towards a report of two humpback whales near Salmon Bank, just off Cattle Point. Captain Pete, naturalist Rachel, myself, and our guests arrived on scene to find a giant humpback whale pectoral fin waving in the air! Humpback pectoral fins are up to 15 feet in length and we watched as this animal showed us its left pec, then its right pec, then...

[Sunday, 5/13/18 - M/V Kestrel - 1:00PM - Naturalist Erick]

Happy Mothers’ Day!

This Sunday, Captain Brian and I left Friday Harbor looking for all the wonderful whales and wildlife out here. We started out by going north through San Juan Channel and made our first stop at Green Point on Spieden Island to check out the remaining Steller Sea Lions resting on the point. There were a group of about 20 adult male Steller Sea Lions wrestling and growling at each other. These amazing...

[Friday, 5/11/18 - M/V Sea Lion - 12:00 - Naturalist Erick]

It’s sunny weather here again in the San Juan Islands and it’s definitely starting to feel like summer. On Friday before Mother's’ Day Captain Pete and I took a smaller group out to look for exciting animals. We headed north to look in some of the usual places that we see prey for the larger species of whales that travel through our area. We started out looking at some Harbor Seals at Flattop Island. This whole island is...