Olivia Esqueda | April 14th, 2025 | M/V Osprey | 2:00pm

We love sunny days with calm seas and whales nearby- which is exactly what this afternoon brought! We started off our trip heading north through San Juan Channel until we came upon Spieden Island. This privately owned island has the largest bloom of pink flowers (invasive and a part of the geranium family) that we have seen in years and, contrasted with the green shoreline and the mouflon sheep lambs prancing around, it engulfs the...

Lauren | M/V Sea Lion | Friday, April 11th | 12:30 pm 

Today’s Classic Whale Watch and Wildlife Tour was filled with diverse wildlife, seeing many different species during our 4-hour tour. Immediately as we exited Friday Harbor we were greeted by a group of foraging Dall’s Porpoise! Although not rare, we are not greeted by the presence of Dall’s all that often, making it an extra special tour every time we have an encounter. Dall’s Porpoise are often dubbed, the second coolest black and white...

Lauren | M/V Osprey | Wednesday, April 9th | 2:00 pm

Today was our first tour aboard the M/V Osprey, our largest vessel in the fleet. A fully booked tour on our largest vessel can mean only one thing… Summer is coming! We boarded our eager passengers and headed out of Friday Harbor. We had a report of an animal south of Lopez Island, but with the report being pretty far away, we had no time for prior stops. We cruised south in San Juan Channel and through Cattle Pass, taking looks at the Olympic...

Lauren | M/V Sea Lion | April 2nd, 2025 | 12:30 pm 

Friday Harbor was booming with life this Wednesday afternoon. The town was filled with families and friends on Spring Break! Spring Break is our awakening. It’s our first busy weekend of the year. A sign that sleepy San Juan winter is behind us, and that summer is on the horizon. Captain Eric and I loaded our passengers abord the M/V Sea Lion and cruised out of Friday Harbor. We were excited to find out that a fellow Pacific Whale Watch...

Lauren | M/V Sea Lion | October 26, 2024 | 12:30 pm

With only two trips left in our 2024 season, I could not have been more delighted when I woke up to an alert that one of my favorite Bigg’s Killer Whale families was in the region. The T049A’s were picked up near Victoria and were trending northeast across the Haro Strait. The T049A’s are local legends and one of the families we’ve encountered most this season, so I was excited to get the chance to wish them a safe and prosperous winter. 

By the...

Lauren | M/V Sea Lion | October 25, 2024 | 12:30 pm

One of my favorite things about San Juan Island at this time of year is the crisp fall air and the occasional crystal-clear skies. Yesterday was one of those days, where even Mount Rainer was shining as far as the eye could see. The morning whale reports were abundant… everywhere BUT in the inland waters around Friday Harbor. Captain Eric and I prepared the M/V Sea Lion for our long voyage ahead and set sail. We took a right out of Friday Harbor...

Lauren | M/V Sea Lion | October 13, 2024 | 12:30 pm

October weather can be tricky out here in the Salish Sea. Luckily for our Classic Whale Watch & Wildlife Tour last Sunday, we were granted calm seas and sunny skies. Although the elements can sometimes prove tricky, Fall is a spectacular time to come whale watching in the San Juan Islands. Not only do we still regularly see killer whales, but we start to get a massive influx of migrating humpbacks as well. By October, most of the humpback whales...

Olivia Esqueda | M/V Sea Lion | September 25th, 2024 | 12:30pm

We are loving these fall days out on the water. Not only can we see the wildlife that spend the summer months here still hanging around, but we are also starting to see a return of the wildlife that will spend the winter months in these waters. These transitional phases bring in a broader biodiversity within the Salish Sea, making the shoulder seasons some of our favorite times of year to get out on the water. 

Today we felt lucky to...

Lauren Tschirhart | M/V Sea Lion | September 22nd, 2024 | 12:30pm

Captain Vaun and I were eager to start our tour today, with reports of a giant T-Party forming north of Mayne Island in the Strait of Georgia. The only problem… Would these whales stay in our range? We raced out of Friday Harbor and headed north into San Juan Channel. With no time for wildlife stops along the way, we headed right for Active Pass. After transiting over an hour and a half we finally made our way into the Strait of...

Lauren | M/V Kestrel | September 18th, 2024 | 2:00 pm

Our 2:00 pm Kestrel tour was a perfectly well-rounded wildlife tour. We often see different species of whales and wildlife out on the water, but to see as much as we did today is rare. We saw species from three of the five major categories of marine mammals: cetaceans, pinnipeds and even a mustelid! We started our tour by heading south in San Juan Channel. Our first stop was to search the kelp bed off Turn Island for a rumored sea otter. Sea...