Another great day out on the water! Following a similar route around Spieden Island, through the Cactus Islands, and channel between Stewart and John’s Islands we saw a lot of great wildlife! Stellars were enjoying the sun, belly up in the water at Spieden point, and numerous Harbor Seals were catching the rays on any rock space available between Spieden and Mandarte. We also saw about 5 or so Bald Eagles along the tops of the tree line. Once we came around the northwestern point of...

Today was my first day back in the Salish Sea and it didn't disappoint! We started our trip heading north out of Friday Harbor. It was sunny and the seas were calm, which made for smooth sailing. We seemed to spot bald eagles everywhere, perched in trees and flying about. Along Spieden Island we came across a group of at least five huge Steller Sea Lions leisurely rolling around in the water. Further along in our journey we caught a long glimpse of harbor seals hauled out on a small...

Almost left a naturalist at the dock today! With the winds prevailing, the naturalist wasn’t quite fast enough to get on board once she let the lines loose. Luckily the captain came back to pick her up at the “Spring Street Landing” dock. With all on board we headed out through the San Juan Channel. A light drizzle and sun-teasing skies had the crowd curious. We arrived at the first stop on the north side of Spieden Island and found one lonely Steller Sea Lion. Traveling our way...

We saw everything and it felt like we went everywhere today.

After being on the water for over an hour a whale report came to Capt. Bill that the whales were in Haro Straight near Canada paralell with the Lime Kiln light house.  Leaving Speiden Island we headed back to Haro Strait and caught up with a group of approximately 6 Transient Orcas whales near Kelp Reef.  This made the tour run much longer than our regular 3 hours - but all the guests thought it was well worth it.

Natural...

Sea Lions, Harbor Seals, and ORCAS, OH MY!

As we left the harbor we traveled north through the San Juan Channel to Spieden Island where two large Stellar Sea Lions were hauled out on the rocks.  Six other sea lions swam along the shore surfacing, rolling, and diving in succession as if performing synchronized swimming acrobatics.  As we continued down the coast we had great views of the Mouflon sheep and Sika deer including some wee babes.   Roughly 40 harbor seals were seen...

California Sea Lion

A Warm Spring Day of Whale & Wildlife Watching from Friday Harbor, San Juan Island

Today we took off with reports of our resident orcas coming north on the west side of San Juan Island.

We headed out of Friday Harbor going north making a stop at NWR Yellow Island, and rock outcroppings with 43+ snoozing Harbor Seals.   We made our way along the coast of Speiden Island. Often times this is a great place to spot Bald Eagles – no Eagle this time.  But we did...

Excited by an early morning report that a large number of Orcas had been sighted off Cattle Point on San Juan Island, we could not wait to get out on the water at noon. Heading north in San Juan Channel, our first stop was at Yellow Island to check out a healthy number of Harbor Seals hauled out on the rocks.  Next stop, Green Point at Speiden Island, where more than a few mammoth Stellar Sea Lions dove and rolled on all sides of the boat. Several Harbor Porpoises surfaced long...

No orca whale reports today, BUT as we pulled out of Friday Harbor the Captain received word of a humpback whale by Halibut Island, Canada. It took us nearly an hour to get to the location but there it was – a beautiful humpback whale. It looked as though it was feeding the entire time we were with it – almost ½ an hour. When it dove down, one could see many of the ‘knuckles’ on it’s back.  Two of the many dives it waved it tail gently before disappearing into the water...

Yes, we saw orca whales today on the 2nd of October - late in the whale watching season.  We took off from Friday Harbor, San Juan Island heading north toward Spieden Island.  As we neared Speiden, one of the guests spotted a large brown head which turned out to be a great big stellar sea lion fishing by himself.  We stayed on the south side of Speiden and Shelly spotted a mature bald eagle up in a tree. Down below the Mouflon Sheep and Sitka Deer were roaming about.

We pushed on to...

We only have a few more trips left in our season up here, but the whales don't know that.  Today we found members of our resident pods K and L, almost 50 whales, spread out in Haro Strait heading up to Turn Point.  We were able to identify K20 (possibly with a new calf?  yet to be confirmed), L87, L41, L88, and  K40.  We got to see a wide range of behaviors and all our passengers were very excited.

On the way home we stopped along Spieden and saw many harbor seals on the rocks, as...