Skip to main content
Image

Humpback Pair Fluking Along Stewart Island!

Laura C. | M/V Sea Lion | 11/29/19 | 12:00pm

Today was so much fun out on the water!  We boarded M/V Sea Lion and headed north into the San Juan Channel.  Our first wildlife sighting was a bald eagle on Flattop Island, sitting out in the open on a large boulder.  It was an awesome experience to see it take off from the rock and gently land into a tree branch above.  Across the way, we stopped to view a large congregation of harbor seals.  There was a beautiful white harbor seal...

Image
Bigg's killer whales hunting

Bigg's Killer Whales Hunting Right Outside Friday Harbor!!

Laura C. | M/V Sea Lion | 11/17/2019 | 12:00 pm

What an exceptional day out on the water!  The Salish Sea was a buffet of small schooling fish swirling through the surrounding cold-water currents.  M/V Sea Lion headed out of Friday Harbor with gusto to stop only minutes away to our fist whale sightings!  The T18s were in the area foraging just north of Friday Harbor!  T19C and T18 were hugging the east side of San Juan Island and T19B and T19 were in San Juan Channel about 300 yards...

Image
Bigg's Orcas

What a day! : Bigg's Orcas (T18's/T19's) and a Humpback (Heather) to boot!

Erick | Sunday, November 10, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | Noon

 

                We’re quickly moving into November and soon it will be the last trip of the year! This Sunday, we received great sunny weather with a slight breeze as we headed out with Capt. Pete at the wheel as well as Sarah and myself along as Naturalists. We headed north towards reports of whales that Brain, the owner of San Juan Safaris and Sarah had found earlier this morning! As we approached Green Point on Spieden...

Image
Cloudy day in the San Juan Islands

Humpback Whale in Northern Haro Strait

Sarah | 11/09/2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00pm

We left San Juan Island under typical November gray skies with a sight drizzle. Weather doesn’t really affect our wildlife sightings, we usually see the same wildlife on sunny days and rainy days.

Captain Pete and I decided to head north through San Juan Channel to start our trip off. We stopped at Spieden Island to look for some bald eagles. We got a great look at a pair of eagles up on some of the trees on the North side of the island...

Image

Humpbacks Wave Their Flukes at Friday Harbor!

Laura C. | M/V Sea Lion | 11/3/19 | 12:00pm

What an awesome day out on the water with Captain Pete!  M/V Sea Lion ventured north into the San Juan Channel on a clear sunny morning blanketed with crystal blue skies.  With only 10 passengers aboard, were able to move around our spacious vessel and appreciate the natural splendor of the surrounding islands in relaxed contentment.  Around the bend of Friday Harbor to the left I quickly spotted a bald eagle overlooking a madrone tree. ...

Image
humpback whale

Humpback Whale North of San Juan Island

Sarah | 11/02/2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00pm

Today we had an amazing November day to go out and explore the Salish Sea. With smooth, glassy water, and amazing sunshine we were excited to leave the dock and go out an explore. We elected to head north through San Juan Channel, and right out of the harbor we encountered a bald eagle sitting on the shore ripping into and eating some sort of bird. There were downy feathers scattered all around the enormous bird and we got to see some glauc...

Image

Minkes, Humpbacks, Harbor Porpoise and a Brown Booby!

M/V Sea Lion | Naturalist Alexandria | Wednesday, October 30, 2019

What a great day we had today!  It was probably one of the most perfect fall days!  We left the dock and were so excited to see what the day had in store for us.  We headed north up San Juan Channel and caught up with some Minke Whales off Flat Top island.  We had previously stopped there to check out some Harbor seals that were hanging out on the rocks, and had also seen an eagle fly by and land on the cliff just in...

Image

Humpbacks Squared, and a family of Biggs Killer Whales!

M/V Sea Lion | Naturalist Alexandria | Friday, October 18th, 2019

What a fantastic day we had out on the water today!  We started out our trip and we had a unconfirmed report of orcas north of us.  By the time everyone had boarded and we were leaving Friday Harbor a few other boats from our area had confirmed this sighting, and we were excited to head towards them!

Little did we know though that there were still more whales to be seen!  As we were leaving the harbor we saw a Humpback...

Image
Humpback Whale near Spieden Island

Best Whale Watch of the Season. Humpback Whale Encounter

Sarah | 10/15/2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00pm

We had a lovely October day out on the water, with a bit of Pacific Northwest liquid sunshine falling from the sky and amazing wildlife in the waters surrounding the San Juan Islands, today was autumnal whale watching at its best.

Captain Erick and I left Friday Harbor with a group of wonderful guests. With no initial reports of whales in the area we had decided to leave the harbor and head south. We had no sooner started to pick up speed...

Image
Male Bigg's Orca

Heaps of Bigg's Orcas and Humpback Whale! (T123s, T35A's, T38A's, T99's, & T37A's)

Naturalist Erick | Sunday, October 13, 2019 | M/V Kestrel | Noon

 

We couldn’t ask for better fall weather today when Capt. Pete and I took a full group out to go search for wildlife in the Salish Sea.  We started out by heading east through Upright Channel and through the small passage between Obstruction Island and Blakely Island called Peavine Pass. We had heard earlier of reports of some orcas in Rosario Strait and were looking for them. There they were heading north towards...

Start your next adventure today! View All Tours