M/V Sea Lion | May 11, 2019 | Naturalist Alexandria

What a great day we had today out on the water!  Captain Pete, Erick and myself all hit the water with no firm reports of whales, but as we headed north up San Juan Channel we heard of some Humpbacks that had been seen up in Boundary Pass!

We were just passing through Presidents Channel- right off of Orcas Island- and were already headed in the right direction! Along the way we got some good looks at a few harbor porpoise swimming...

Erick | Wednesday, May 8, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00

Today we were lucky enough to get another warm sunny day in the San Juan Islands. Captain Gabe and I took out a group of lovely folks to go search for some local wildlife. We started by going south through San Juan Channel and then east towards Whidbey Island. This shoreline for the past couple of days has hosted a few Grey Whales so were going to search the areas along the way there as well as stop by and look to see if those...

Piper | 05/07/2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 

Even though it's still early season, the sun shone today like a warm summer afternoon and the skies were so clear we could even see Mt Rainier as Captain Gabe and I led the M/V Sea Lion out of the marina, where we had an early bald eagle sighting, and south through San Juan Channel. After getting into the Strait of Juan de Fuca we headed east towards Whidbey Island where there had been whisperings of a gray whale feeding in the mud! It was a...

Erick | Thursday, April 18, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00

Today, was a classic rainy PNW spring day. Many of the widlflowers are comign out and the landscape blushes with hints of pink, purple, white, and yellow. Captain Pete and I headed north through San Juan and President Channel. As the low lying clouds hovered over the mostly still sea and scraped over the forested islands that towered above us we cruised along and made our first stop at Patos Island. Here we cruised by the Patos...

Today on our trip onboard M/V Sea Lion we were treated to some great looks at some Dall Porpoise off Cattle Point.  We had just hung out and checked out some very fun Steller Sea Lions that were hauled out at Whale Rocks, when we were greeted by some enthusiastic Dall’s Porpoise. 

The cool thing about Dall’s Porpoise is that they are very friendly and fun animals!  You could tell they were swimming up to our boat...

Alexandria | Tuesday April 16, 2019 | 12:00 | M/V Sea Lion

What an absolutely amazing trip!  Today was quite the day!

When we hit the water this afternoon we were very excited to have two reports of orcas within our range.  The first was a bit up north and the second was south of us.  We decided to begin the trip by heading south and passing through the southern point of San Juan Island.

While we were heading south we were treated to some awesome views of eagles flying over us, as...

Erick | Monday, April 15, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00

The Spring BLOOM has arrived! Noooo I don’t mean all the wildflowers blooming on all the prairies around the islands (well, they are blooming too). I’m talking about the phytoplankton and zooplankton! Every spring once daylight hours hit a certain threshold and there are enough nutrients floating around the phytoplankton re populate exponentially thereby feeding the zooplankton and eventually the whole ecosystem! Your can see...

Alexandria | Thursday, April 11, 2019 | 12:00 | M/V Sea Lion

Today we had an awesome day on the water!  It was so awesome that we got to hang out with our group of orcas not once, but twice!   When we loaded onto M/V Sea Lion we were very excited to see what the day had in store.  We met up in the office and headed down to board our 55ft vessel.  Once on board Captain Brian and Captain Sarah introduced themselves and talked about what the game plan for the day was.

We had some...

Erick | Wednesday, April 10, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 

This Wednesday brought us back to very on brand Pacific Northwest spring weather. Low-lying clouds scraped the canopy of the evergreen forests that cover the San Juan Islands intermittently dipping low enough to brush us with a light rain. Captain Brian and I took a smaller group out on M/V Sea Lion to look for a wonderful array of wildlife in the Salish Sea. As we left Friday Harbor, we turned north to travel up San Juan...

Erick | Tuesday, April 9, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 

It was raining in the morning here, but by the time we were taking our lovely passengers out to go find some exciting wildlife the sun had come out on another glorious spring day. Captain Brian, Alexandria, and myself took this group aboard M/V Sea Lion north through San Juan Channel. We made our first stop at Green Point on Spieden Island to view the smorgasbord of pinnipeds hauled out there. On the sunbaked rocky shore there...