We could not have asked for a better spring weather out on the M/V Sea lion today.  We started our day with reports of whales on the North side of Orcas Island.  On our way up to the area we spotted some harbor seals swimming in the water and some bald eagles flying up ahead. 

We arrived on scene to a pod of transient orcas formally known as the T49A’s.  This pod is made up of 4 individuals including the 31 year old matriarch and her three offspring; a 14 year old adult male, a 5...

We see whales most days and they are super! But some days we have an extra special day. Today we went north and motored through some of the outer islands north of San Juan Island. We first stopped around Flattop Island to look at some really cool Harbor Porpoises surfing in the windy chop south of the island. After we checked out their silly antics we continued north and saw quite a few majestic Bald Eagles and as we approached East Point on Saturna, one of my favorite places in the...

Yesterday was another wonderful day on the water. Fall still has amazing wildlife to show off here in the San Juan Islands. We headed north to start the search for whales yet again. We went all the way up into the Canadian Gulf Islands which are still beautiful but in a different way. As you move north into the Southern Gulf Islands of Canada the islands become taller and closer together crating these beautiful narrow passageways that we got to motor through yesterday. We went...

Yesterday, the sun was out again and the seas were calm. Early in the morning the Southern Resident Killer Whales could be heard over one of the hydrophones placed on the west side of the island, and by the time the sun came up there was a whole lot of orcas spread out along the southern shore of San Juan Island. Captain Mike, Scott, and I took a bunch of great folks on an adventure to find these orcas and of course some other amazing wildlife as whale. First we stopped to look at a...

Yesterday, we saw a wide diversity of marine mammals. We cruised around the northern San Juan Islands and even went into the Gulf Islands of Canada for a quick bit. We saw a few Harbor Porpoise including a calf which was super tiny and super cute. We also saw several tons of Harbor Seals laying on the rocks around Flattop Island and swimming and twirling in the water. A young one pooped up and took a few minutes to check us out checking him out. We also saw all three species of the...

You know what people love more than whales? Nothing except more whales and maybe perhaps the idea of autumn as they drown everything in brighter earth tones, sweaters, and pumpkin spice flavoring, but today wasn’t one of those days it was a whale of a day. Captain Mike, myself and Alex headed north to search for the Southern Resident Orcas. We first spotted them around East Point on Saturna Island. This place is one of my favorite in the islands, the current get a little bit crazy...

Today was a tearful one. It was Captain Pete and Naturalist Hannah’s last day this season, but before they left me all alone we had the best day ever. All three of us along with a whole boatful of great humans headed south today. We made it all the way to the Strait of Juan de Fuca to find the orcas. Today it was the Southern Resident Orcas that we were watching. These are the salmon eating orcas and their population is critically endangered. Today we saw two families of J pod. The J...

It’s the end of August folks, and that means beautiful vaguely fall days mixed in with sunny days, and less daylight, but not less whales! Yesterday Captain Mike, Sarah C., and I headed north to eventually loop around the north side of San Juan Island to go look at the Southern Resident Orcas. These are the fish eating ones, the ones you probably know the most about, and also the most endangered currently. Since they mainly eat salmon, and this year has been a historically low salmon...

So Hot, well it’s hot for us. It got all the way up to 80F on land here today, but still pretty cool over the water as we headed towards the west side of San Juan Island again today. We made it to Eagle Cove and started to see those telltale blows over the water. We got closer and it was a very spread out group of K pod and J pod milling and catching fish off the western coast of San Juan Island. Soon though they finished fishing and started to group up a little bit off shore, and it...

Yesterday was probably one of the hottest of the summer here in the San Juan Islands. It got to around 80˚F on land, but once we were on the water it cooled down to a nice pleasant temperature. Today was one of those rare days as well that we did not really go that far. Friday Harbor is on the east side of San Juan Island and usually we make a few stops to see wildlife and eventually make our way to one of the larger straits to see the whales but today we went about a minute outside...