Kelly | M/V Osprey | Saturday, May 17th 2025 | 12:30pm

Peak season is officially here! Whales are showing up all over the Salish Sea. We took a quick left out of Friday Harbor and motored up San Juan Channel to investigate a report of killer whales in Canadian water. On our route to Canada we slipped over the top of San Juan Island and into the Haro Straight. This bigger body of water gave us a few quick looks at some harbor porpoise, swiftly surfacing off our starboard side. 

Not long after...

Olivia Esqueda | May 11th, 2025 | M/V Osprey | 12:30pm

It was a fun adventure out on the water today heading southwest almost all the way to Deception Pass, which bridges Fidalgo and Whidbey Islands! We were able to find the T100s, a matriline of Bigg’s Killer Whales. While this matriarch has a few other calves, this afternoon we saw T100 [Hutchins, female born in 1979] traveling with two of her calves, T100C [Laurel, male born in 2022] and T100F [Estrella, born in 2014]. We watched as they...

Lauren | M/V Osprey | Thursday, May 8th | 2:00 PM

Today the M/V Osprey took a trip southwest. Aiming for Discovery Island off the coast of Victoria, British Columbia. First we took a right out of Friday Harbor and headed south into San Juan Channel. As we exited Cattle Pass we were greeted by a Steller’s Sea Lion munching on a fish. We cruised west through the Strait of Juan De Fuca and into the Haro Strait. Right before crossing into Canadian waters we witnessed several harbor porpoise surfacing...

Olivia Esqueda | May 3rd, 2025 | M/V Osprey | 12:30pm

It was such a neat experience today with a Humpback Whale east of the islands! We traveled inner island passing heaps of birds, including many Rhinoceros Auklets before reaching Rosario Strait, which is the first big body of water you cross when heading to Friday Harbor on the WA State Ferry. We were able to spot a Humpback Whale [CRC-19888 named Schooner] foraging along the shoreline with half a tail fluke! This whale was first spotted in...

Lauren | M/V Osprey | Wednesday, April 30th | 2:00 PM

Today’s Classic Whale Watch & Wildlife Tour took a lengthy trip north up into the Strait of Georgia! We began our tour by departing Friday Harbor and aiming for Presidents Channel. On our way to Presidents we slowly cruised by McConnell Island to look at a bald eagle perched high up on a tree top. We continued northeast and got a glimpse of some harbor porpoise surfacing between Waldron and Orcas Island. We made our way through Boundary Pass...

Lauren | M/V Sea Lion | October 13, 2024 | 12:30 pm

October weather can be tricky out here in the Salish Sea. Luckily for our Classic Whale Watch & Wildlife Tour last Sunday, we were granted calm seas and sunny skies. Although the elements can sometimes prove tricky, Fall is a spectacular time to come whale watching in the San Juan Islands. Not only do we still regularly see killer whales, but we start to get a massive influx of migrating humpbacks as well. By October, most of the humpback whales...

Olivia Esqueda | M/V Sea Lion | September 25th, 2024 | 12:30pm

We are loving these fall days out on the water. Not only can we see the wildlife that spend the summer months here still hanging around, but we are also starting to see a return of the wildlife that will spend the winter months in these waters. These transitional phases bring in a broader biodiversity within the Salish Sea, making the shoulder seasons some of our favorite times of year to get out on the water. 

Today we felt lucky to...

Lauren Tschirhart | M/V Sea Lion | September 22nd, 2024 | 12:30pm

Captain Vaun and I were eager to start our tour today, with reports of a giant T-Party forming north of Mayne Island in the Strait of Georgia. The only problem… Would these whales stay in our range? We raced out of Friday Harbor and headed north into San Juan Channel. With no time for wildlife stops along the way, we headed right for Active Pass. After transiting over an hour and a half we finally made our way into the Strait of...

Olivia Esqueda | M/V Sea Lion | Thursday, September 19th, 2024 | 12:30pm

Today was such a fun tour bringing in all the fall vibes. We started off our trip by heading south through San Juan Channel, stopping briefly off Turn Island to see a Sea Otter floating around in the bull kelp reef. This gave us an opportunity to chat about how the increased sightings of sea otters in the last few years all circles back to sea star wasting disease. We love conversations showing how everything is connected...

Lauren | M/V Sea Lion | September 14th, 2024 | 12:30 pm

Our Sunday trip aboard the M/V Sea Lion took us about as far as we can go during a 3-to-4-hour whale watching tour out of Friday Harbor. The only whales we knew of were slowly exiting the Puget Sound, heading north-west out of Admiralty Inlet. Captain Gabe and I hoped for the best and headed south in San Juan Channel. We stopped at Goose Island to look at some Double-Crested Cormorant nests and some hauled our harbor seals. We cruised...