This Sunday in September sure felt like fall. Capt Gabe, Jordan, and myself headed out with a great group of passengers into the rainy blue Salish Sea. Most people visit this area in the summer, which is beautiful here. The temperature is usually super pleasant, the sun is up for a very long time, and there is usually not a rain cloud to speak of. The rest of the year though, it looks like it did today - very misty, cool, breezy, and rainy. We ventured off into the Pacific...

[Tuesday, 6/12/18 - M/V Sea Lion - 12:00 - Naturalist Erick]

Another grand day in the San Juan Islands! It did start out a little grey, but was still pretty warm for June as Captain Gabe and I headed north with a great group of people aboard the M/V Sea Lion. We traveled up past Spieden, Johns, and Stuart Islands until we reached Boundary Pass. Here we started to see some blows against the cloudy grey sky reflected in the still waters of the Salish Sea. It was Orcas! It was a super...

[Monday, 6/11/18 - M/V Kestrel - 2:00PM - Naturalist Erick]

Happy Monday Everyone! We hope your weekend was as good as ours, and it’s only going to get better this week! This Monday afternoon Captain Gabe and I took a super fun group of people out on a trip aboard M/V Kestrel. We started by heading north through San Juan Channel. We traveled around the northern side of San Juan and Henry Islands. Just as we rounded Henry Island we saw some blows in the distance around Kellett...

[Saturday, 3/31/18 – 4:00PM – M/V Sea Lion – Naturalist Erick]

     On Saturday, there were so many folks that wanted to go watch fun wildlife that we had a second trip! In the summer we have two trips every day, but this was definitely a treat for this time of the year. Captain Mike and I picked up a new group of guests and headed back out. We headed north in San Juan Channel and pointed towards Boundary Pass. The Orcas of J Pod which we had left in the northern end of Haro Strait...

[Saturday, 3/31/18 – 12:00 – M/V Sea Lion – Naturalist Erick]

Happy end of March and Passover!

On Saturday it was so beautiful and there were so many folks that were interested in coming out with us that we had to take two trips out to see our wonderful wildlife! Captain Mike, Piper, and I took a great group of folks out. It was sunny and calm, and we couldn’t ask for a more perfect spring day. We headed south through San Juan Channel, passed through Cattle Pass and traveled...

09/29/17- M/V Kestrel- 2PM

Today our guests were lucky enough to see a J pod party out on their whale watch!  We left Friday Harbor and headed down South toward Smith Island. 

On our way we stopped at Whale Rocks to see some Steller’s sea lions.  These guys are back in full force with dozens of individuals all over the rocks.  The Steller’s are one of my personal favorite animals to watch in this area.  There are pretty predictably at these rocks and they are always so many different...

[Naturalist Sarah – 09/23/2017 – M/V Sea Lion – 12:00pm & 04:00pm]

With recent beautiful weather and the incredible wildlife sightings we made a late decision to add a sunset trip to our schedule. It was such a treat to spend even more time out on the water at this magical time of year.

12:00pm Whale Watch

We left Friday Harbor and headed east through Upright Channel… we had a report of Southern Resident killer whales travelling south through Rosario Strait. Working together with the...

09/23/17- M/V Kestrel- 2PM

We had great reports leading up to today’s trip!  We headed South via San Juan Channel, towards the Strait of Juan de Fuca, where we had reports of some of our Southern Resident Killer Whales traveling West. 

On our way towards the whale reports we stopped at whale rocks to look at some Steller’s Sea Lions.  These huge animals, roughly 12 feet long and 2,500 pounds, were soaking up some sun on the rocks.  It is so nice to have these pinnipeds back in the...

09/22/17- M/V Kestrel- 2PM

Today we left Friday Harbor on a beautiful fall day, with a slight overcast and glassy seas.  We first got to see some harbor seals hauled out on some rocks off of Lopez Island.  We then headed to whale rocks where we got to see some Steller’s Sea Lions in and out of the water. 

As we were heading towards our orca reports for the day, we saw a big bait ball that intrigued us, so we made a pit stop.  We were lucky enough to see some minke whales lunge...

09/13/17- M/V Kestrel- 2PM

Our resident whales still seem to be sticking around!  We haven’t seen much of our resident whales this summer because of our record low salmon run, but today our guests were treated with the opportunity to see L pod. 

We headed down San Juan Channel and found the whales in Cattle pass.  When we first arrived we saw a few breaches and some other displays of social behavior.  The whales then shifted to a fast travel pattern while heading towards the...