Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 07/06/19 | 1:30pm

Today, was a very special day for the Salish Sea! Why you ask? Because the Southern Resident Orcas are back!! For the first time in weeks J, K and L pods have been spotted in the San Juan Islands! This literally made national news! So, we were incredibly lucky to be able to boat out and see these amazing, special and famous whales!

Captain Erick, Naturalist Piper and I set out of Friday Harbor towards reports of whales! We headed up through...

M/V Sea Lion | Thursday, May 2nd, 2019 | Naturalist Alexandria

We had a nice small group of guests today onboard M/V Sea Lion!  As we were boarding for the trip it was pretty overcast but once we hit the water the clouds started to clear and the sun worked its way out!  It was a little breezy through parts of this trip so it was so nice to have the beautiful sunshine while we were out on the water!

Once we hit the water we had heard murmurs of Resident Orcas up north.  Unfortunately...

Piper | 04/28/2019 | M/V Sea Lion | Noon

I'm back for another season on San Juan Island and what a great day to kick off the summer aboard the M/V Sea Lion! Captain Pete and I were onboard with a great group of folks today, the sun was shining bright, and the wind had relaxed after a very breezy Saturday. We started off the day with a report of orcas near Sucia Island so when we left Friday Harbor we headed north through San Juan Channel. Just before entering President Channel we...

Erick | Sunday, April 21, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00

Happy Easter everyone! Today we had a fantastic trip. Captain Pete, Ryder, and I headed out with a full boat on a beautiful sunny day! He headed north through San Juan Channel and then through President Channel following up on a report of orcas near Sucia and Matia Islands just north of Orcas Island. Once we got nearer to Sucia and Patos Islands we started to see the blows! We soon identified them as part of J pod! J pod, probably...

Erick |Friday, March 22, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 

Today we caught a short sunny period as we left Friday Harbor to search for some amazing wildlife on this beautiful spring day. Captain Mike and I left with a smaller group and headed north up through beautiful San Juan Channel. We cruised through Spieden Channel and went out into the northern part of Haro Strait and soon saw a few scattered groups of blows in the distance. It was a large group of Orcas travelling spread out...

Erick | February 23, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | Noon

As the short month of February approaches its end we do our last weekend-only trips from Friday Harbor. Once March starts we will be starting daily trips aboard M/V Sea Lion departing from Friday Harbor at noon. This Saturday, Captain Mike and I had a wonderful trip with a very small group of passengers. I think folks were afraid of the cold so it ended up being only two hardy folks aboard wanting to go out and see what was out there in...

[Sarah | 11/18/2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00pm]

 On Sunday the M/V Sea Lion had one of those perfect fall trips that will sustain this whale nerd throughout the rest of the cold, rainy, dark, and long winter ahead! We set out from Friday Harbor with blue skies up above and the potential glimmer of a rumor of some killer whales in the area. In November, sometimes you have to trust your gut and follow up on rumors. We decided to head south to see what we could find.

Pointing towards the...

[Sarah | 11/17/2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00pm]

On Saturday we had a whirlwind of a trip that left the crew of the M/V Sea Lion giddy! This late in the season, both Captain Brian and I agreed that we had experienced one of our top two trips of the season.

Leaving Friday Harbor we pointed west towards the city of Victoria in British Columbia. Stopping briefly in Cattle Pass at the south end of San Juan Island, we were able to get a look at a group of Steller’s sea lions socializing...

Captain Mike, Sarah, and myself took out a wonderful group aboard M/V Sea Lion to look for the wide array of wildlife that we have the opportunity to watch in the Salish Sea in September. We took our group south through San Juan Channel towards Cattle Pass. We made our first stop mid channel in between San Juan and Lopez Islands to look at a Steller Sea Lion that had just surfaced! It was our first marine mammal of the day! This adult male had just returned to the surface after...

Today was an incredible day on our afternoon adventure tour from Friday Harbor. It was one of those September days that I spend allllllll summer thinking about. We left the dock under bright blue skies with great reports of whales around the San Juan Islands.

We headed north towards the reports of whales, and first encountered a pair of humpback whales know as BCY0160 “Heather” and BCY0660 “Raptor.” As we got on to scene one of the massive whales lifted its pectoral fins out of the...