Another lovely day out on the water here in the San Juan's! Today we got to head a bit of a different direction from our normal jaunt along the westside of San Juan Island, and headed through Obstruction Pass, between Orcas Island and Blakely Island. Waiting just outside Obstruction pass, in the Rosario Strait, Captain Mike, Naturalist Chelsea, and passengers aboard the M/V Sea Lion, we're rewarded with a few blows off in the distance. Upon closer inspection, it was none other than...

What an amazing trip we had today! We left our dock today in Friday Harbor without any whale reports once again, so Captain Mike and I decided we were going to head north to see what we could find in that region. We were looking for transient killer whales; this kind of killer whale hunts marine mammals. There is ample food for them north of San Juan Island including harbor seals, harbor porpoise, Steller Sea Lions (the largest in the world), and even Dall's Porpoise! What we found...

We left our Friday Harbor location Sunday with strong winds, a little bit of rain, and choppy water. Still, our spirits were high in hopes of finding killer whales in the Salish Sea even though we didn't have a confirmed killer whale sighting that day. We headed north in search of Transient killer whales, or mammal-hunting killer whales. We came across many harbor seals, harbor porpoise and even some steller sea lions. These are all great food sources for transients. However, when...

The whale watching season is coming to an end here on San Juan Island, and in the Salish Sea. The weather is getting colder, the days shorter, but that doesn't seem to have an effect on the transient orcas! When we left Friday Harbor, we headed south then west traveling off the shores of Victoria to catch a glimpse of some transient orcas. When we arrived on scene, the T46b group of five orcas were traveling close together. After waiting in anticipation for over an hour to see orcas...

The M/V Sea Lion left the harbor today with no whale reports as it was pretty foggy on the west side of San Juan Island. However, like many non-whale report days, it wasn't long before a sighting of the orcas come across on the VHF radios on Salmon Bank. I broke the news to our guests, which is always my favorite part, and we headed straight there!

When we got on seen, I quickly recognized the group of transient orcas as the same group we saw yesterday: T-120s. They were milling in a...

Yesterdays trip turned out to be pretty great! Lots of whales, wildlife and rare findings! We left Friday Harbor and headed for the west side of San Juan Island to catch up with the T-120 group of mammal hunting transient orcas, stoping along the way to see harbor seals and steller sea lions.

When we got to the orcas they were traveling at a very fast speed, probably chasing their prey. Just as I was telling guests how orcas hunt cooperatively and come together in a tight group...

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...

It’s not often that we get to choose between viewing Bigg’s Killer Whales or Southern Resident Killer Whales on the same trip. That was the case today. I wish we could spread out this luck for the guests who didn’t get to see any killer whales on their trip. For a time during peak summer, we were striking out trip after trip, at a time when killer whale sightings should have been at their peak. That unpredictability is part of the fun of viewing killer whales in the wild.

So what did...

As the sun beat down on Captain Craig, the guests, and I we enjoyed a cool breeze as we left the harbor. With temperatures near 80 degrees today, everyone was thankful to be out on the water! We were lucky enough to have positive reports of transient orcas in Canadian waters. We arrived on scene near Gooch Island to find about 8 transient orcas milling in a kelp bed. After traveling past Mandarte Island the orcas appeared to find something to eat! While, it all happened under...

When we left Friday Harbor, today we didn't have an Orca report and were planning on heading south to look at Minke Whales for our 1:30 whale watch. However, we soon got word of some mammal hunting Orcas up north near Portland and Salt Spring Island in Canada! We were all very excited at the news, and even though it would be a long trip to get there, it was well worth it. Guest settled in on the bow and in the cabin and enjoyed the incredibly scenic ride up north into the Canadian...