[6/20/17 ~ Sea Lion 1:30 Departure]

Yesterday was a record-breaking day for me aboard the M/V Sea Lion. I've been pretty far north before, close enough to see the skyscrapers of greater Vancouver, but yesterday I was lucky enough to go even further north into the Strait of Georgia. Lead by a report of two familiar humpback whales in the Strait of Georgia, and no whales closer by, Captain Gabe took us full speed up to the water northeast of Galiano Island. 

Thankfully, the day was...

Yesterday was another wonderful day on the water. Fall still has amazing wildlife to show off here in the San Juan Islands. We headed north to start the search for whales yet again. We went all the way up into the Canadian Gulf Islands which are still beautiful but in a different way. As you move north into the Southern Gulf Islands of Canada the islands become taller and closer together crating these beautiful narrow passageways that we got to motor through yesterday. We went...

The Sea Lion left the dock today crewed by Captain Pete and Naturalists Mike and Alex.  We had clear skies, a fantastic group of passengers and reports of a humpback whale to the North. We began to see wildlife right outside the harbor with a bald eagle regally perched in a tree and a pod of harbor porpoise close behind the boat. As we motored north we passed several more groups of the little porpoises, which are the most common and smallest cetacean found in the Salish Sea. Unlike...

I saw the first splash from a quarter mile away; a great backwards leap that sent water twenty feet in the air. Hoping for some repetition I crossed my fingers as we motored closer to the scene, deep in the middle of the Strait of Georgia. We'd finally made it to J Pod.

Many people don't realize why whales breach. Be they Killer Whales or Humpbacks, breach we may not know the meaning of every individual action, but we do know these are social displays meant to send a message. J...

Like many days in early spring when killer whales have no set pattern of occurrence, we left our Friday Harbor location without a confirmation of killer whales. However, when we got a possible report of transients headed through Active Pass, we decided to go check it out and see what we could see. As we entered the Strait of Georgia, our small groups of guests aboard the M/V Sea Lion got a nice surprise as we began to see dorsal fins emerge in the distance. As we got closer, I...

The M/V Sea Lion departed Friday Harbor yesterday in search of the killer whales that inhabit the Salish Sea. When we got underway Captain Mike got a report of Biggs Killer Whales, or Transients, off the Southeast side of Galiano Island. Even though that was far into the Strait of Georgia, and into the Canadian Gulf Island of British Columbia, we decided to go for it! With the bow of our boat pointed north, guests enjoyed a beautifully scenic route into Canada where we spotted about...

M/V Sea Lion and guests left Friday Harbor with the sun breaking through the clouds heading north. Captain Mike had reports of Transient Orcas in the Strait of Georgia. We decide to go through the Canadian Gulf Islands and through Georgesons Passage. This provided our guests with a very scenic view of the different islands. Once we got on scene we could see two young calfs, one juvenile, one adult female, and one adult male. The male was identified as T12A due to his unique dorsal...

Working on a tip from other whale watching boats, Captain Mike, Naturalists Andrew and Heather, and a hopeful crew, departed the Friday Harbor docks and set course for the northeast tip of Orcas Island. I made it known to our guests that we were embarking on a unique cruise. The majority of the time, the M/V “Sea Lion” explores the west side of the San Juan Islands, as the southern resident killer whale pods are known to focus their activity there. But two days ago, the resident...

After leaving our slip in Friday Harbor we were greeted with beautiful calm waters in San Juan Channel. Our destination today was north in to the Canadian waters hopefully to catch up with a Humpback whale spotted earlier in the day.
After a scenic ride north we entered the Strait of Georgia around East Point of Saturna Island where the Humpback was spotted just north of Tumbo Island. This whale was fairly non-directional possibly in a feeding behavior. This has been a excellent...

And that we did today...

With no Orca whale reports in US waters, we decided to “go for it” today, extending our tour, to make the extra trek far north into Canadian waters to see our Southern Residents. We were one of two boats from San Juan Island to make the trip, and man was it worth it!!!

Headed southeast in the Strait of Georgia, we found the K13’s whom were about a mile offshore, north of the coal docks, outside of Vancouver, Canada (48°59.37N 123°10.67W). They were...