Today started out a little bit iffy with some rain showers in the morning and not much in whale reports. As we were leaving Friday Harbor on MV Sea lion Captain Pete heard some great news from a fishing vessel. There were transients in Canadian waters near Saturna and  we caught up with the T065As just in time.

T065A and her four offspring were on the hunt! We watched as they did rapid dives, exhalations, tail slaps, and body rolls at the surface, then an awesome thing happened... a...

Another lovely day out on the water here in the San Juan's! Today we got to head a bit of a different direction from our normal jaunt along the westside of San Juan Island, and headed through Obstruction Pass, between Orcas Island and Blakely Island. Waiting just outside Obstruction pass, in the Rosario Strait, Captain Mike, Naturalist Chelsea, and passengers aboard the M/V Sea Lion, we're rewarded with a few blows off in the distance. Upon closer inspection, it was none other than...

What a great day on the water! We started the day with a group of transient orcas just outside of Friday Harbor. After spending some time with that group we sped off to check out a report of J-Pod in the area. Once we got outside of Spieden Channel near Henry Island we spotted the J-22's, better known as the Cookie Clan! We then traveled around to the North side of Spieden and found a large bald eagle's nest.  Did you know that the largest bald eagle's nest ever recorded was over 2...

Today was a beautiful, sunny day as we left Friday Harbor with news of humpback whales! The Captain Mike and Naturalists Chelsea, Caitlin and Sarah were excited to see some large marine mammals that can be 45-50ft long. We heard that the whales were a mom and calf pair, which is expected this time of year as the whales migrate from their southern winter breeding grounds to the northern summer feeding grounds.

We spotted the whales near Sidney Island in Canadian waters and were able...

At the time Captain Pete and myself got to the boat, there were no reports of whales in the area.  However, by the time we got our guests on board there had been a confirmation that J-pod was still in the area! Naturalist Chelsea and I were pretty happy to share that with guests.  J-pod was spread out off the west side of San Juan Island, fishing.  There were small groups that were more off shore and a few closer to shore.  We made the decision to watch the few close to shore and got...

With J-Pod moving around the south end of Lopez Island and heading toward San Juan Island, Captain Pete and myself were excited to get out on the water. We motored south in San Juan Channel and met part of J-Pod in Cattle Pass.  The orcas were spread out, from the south end of Lopez to the southwest side of San Juan! Captain Pete decided to motor toward a group of four orcas that had no other boats around them, which ended up being a great decision! This group ended up breaching...

Well, the title says it all: J Pod returned home to the waters outside the San Juan Island through the night and surprised us all in the morning! Usually, J Pod would be back in these waters foraging for salmon at the beginning of May, but we’d only seen them once. So, you can imagine everyone’s sheer delight when we heard J Pod on the hydrophones early this morning- I couldn't wait to get on the water and give guests the experience of a lifetime. And, as we boarded guests onto our...

Today we departed the docks of Friday Harbor with high hopes of seeing Orcas in the area. Recently the waters of the Salish Sea have been quiet active with groups of Transient Orcas, or mammal hunting Orcas. It's always an amazing experience to be able to see these incredibly social and intelligent predators in their natural setting. We didn’t have a whale report, so we spent most of our trip looking for killer whales, and at other amazing wildlife!

Although killer whales are often...

It was yet another beautiful day in the San Juan's as the M/V Sea Lion departed Friday Harbor and headed North. The killer whales we had heard rumor of up in Canada had begun to travel in our direction and were supposed to meet up with us within the hour! Excitement ran high from guests and crew alike, when we finally got on scene we all witnessed some awesome behavior!

I was just explaining to guests that we were watching Biggs killer whales, better known as transients. These are...

We left Friday harbor today with a report of the same Transients we found the night before traveling slowly up the San Juan channel! I always love days like this because it means after looking at the whales, we can show the guests all of the other amazing wildlife the San Juan islands have to offer. I couldn't wait to tell everyone that not only were we going to see Transient killer whales, but they were within five minutes of our dock!

When we got on seen with the killer whales, we...