[Naturalist Erick D., M/V Kestrel, 8/9/17, 2:00PM]

On our afternoon trip for the day, Gabe and I and all the lovely folks aboard started another exciting search for some cool marine wildlife. Our first stop was one of our favorites. We motored down to Whale Rocks. These two Islets emerge from the waves of Cattle Pass just southwest of Lopez Island. You can see them from the shores of both Lopez and San Juan, and when they are covered by our favorite pinnipeds you can definitely...

[8/15/17- M/V Sea Lion- Kelsey, Naturalist- 5:30PM]

Some days, whales are juuuust out of reach from us, and that is okay! We understand that the animals we are searching for are wild, and orcas can actually swim 35 mph and travel up to 100 miles in a day! We always want to see whales, but we also have a great deal of other amazing wildlife that fills these islands in the Salish Sea that we want to share with travelers. We actually have 4 species of baleen whale, 2 species of dolphin...

[Lauren Fritz, M/V Sea Lion, 08/15/17, 1:30 pm Tour]

We saw some rare visitors from Alaska today - the T10's! These animals are most frequently seen up north, but they decided to make a surprise appearance in the Salish Sea this week. There was a female with a large nick near the base of her dorsal fin and one of her large sons, spotted cruising along the Salt Spring shoreline today. They even surprised some campers near the shoreline of one of the provincial parks on the island -...

[Naturalist Erick D., M/V Kestrel, 8/9/17, 10:00AM]

On Wednesday, Captain Gabe and I started on the search for families (matrilines) of Transient (Bigg’s) Orcas. While in the Salish Sea this summer we have not seen the Southern Resident orcas much this summer, we have seen many of the Transient (Bigg’s) Orca matrilines. The main difference between these two distinct, non-interbreeding populations that swim through the Salish Sea is their diet. The Southern Residents eat only fish...

[8/12/17- M/V Sea Lion- Kelsey, Naturalist- 1:30PM & 5:30PM]

Some days are just so perfect it doesn’t seem real. And when not one, but TWO trips turn out to be beautifully perfect, it’s a pretty surreal day!

Both trips saw some transient killer whales (or mammal-eating orcas), but there were two separate groups on the same path of travel! In the afternoon, we went south from Friday Harbor to Cattle Point, and there by Whale Rocks were some orcas! We viewed them briefly, and then we...

[Naturalist Sarah C. 8/11/17 2pm Kestrel]

There was wildlife abound today in the Salish Sea! In a lovely continuation of a trend, we've been spotting orcas fairly consistently over the past week. Today's family was especially a sight for sore eyes - called the T65A's after their matriarch (and mother of the rest of the group), this family of five are frequent visitors to the San Juans but hadn't been spotted nearby for nearly a month... before today!

We left Friday Harbor today with...

[8/7/17- Kelsey, Naturalist]

There is a vast expansion of seabird varieties here in the San Juan Islands that we can see on any given trip. We’ve got Common murres, Rhinoceros auklets, Pacific loons, Pelagic Cormorants, Glaucous-winged gulls… just to name a few! Some of the more rare birds are Marbled murrelets, Arctic terns, and on occasion- TUFTED PUFFINS.

There have been very few trips this season where puffins are spotted, but whenever we have had the rare chance to see one, we...

[Sarah M – 08/03/2017 – M/V Sea Lion – 01:30pm & 05:30pm]

Yesterday the M/V Sea Lion had another pair of great trips in the Salish Sea. Even though we are still experiencing smoky conditions, the wildlife sightings have been off the charts amazing and unaffected by the atmospheric conditions.

01:30pm Afternoon Classic Whale Watch

Wildlife

On our afternoon trip we left Friday Harbor and headed south towards Cattle Pass, encountering harbor porpoise and harbor seals as we cruised...

[Lauren Fritz, M/V Kittiwake, 07/03/17, 1:30 pm Charter Tour]

M/V Kittiwake had a private charter today, and Captain Gabe and I were stoked to hear that a pod of Transient killer whales were headed to the west side of San Juan Island. We had a wonderful family on board, and after briefing them on the plan for the day, we headed out of Friday Harbor and turned south to see what these whales were up to!

The weather has been a bit hazy these past few days due to some large wildfires up...

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[8/1/17 5:30 Sea Lion]

Yesterday morning a family group of transient killer whales was spotted on the east side of Cypress Island heading south towards Anacortes. Identified as the T37's, this group was tracked as they hunted and milled slowly...