Olivia | M/V Sea Lion | August 15th, 2020 | 13:00

With Mount Baker standing tall and a warm breeze lightly drifting over the water, we started our long haul towards Whidbey Island in an attempt to see some Bigg’s Killer Whales. Leaving the dock, these 8 individuals were originally just south of Lopez Island and continued southeast of Deception Pass. After traveling for over an hour keeping all our fingers and toes crossed, passing a large, swimming Steller’s Sea Lion on the way, we...

Laura | M/V Sea Lion | 8/14/2020 | 5:30pm

This evening’s 5:30 whale watch was filled with more than two hours of pure orca bliss!  Captain Erick drove M/V Sea Lion north out of Friday Harbor and into Presidents Channel.  It did not take us long for our first orca sighting of the trip to appear in thin air.  There were exhales right off West Beach on Orcas Island!  These exhalations belonged to the T137s and T36As, two families of Bigg’s killer whales!  We watched these orcas...

Olivia | M/V Sea Lion | August 11, 2020 | 13:00

It was an exception treat this morning leaving the dock. We had reports of Bigg’s Killer Whales within our area that swam in quickly from Victoria early this morning. They moved up so far and fast, that leaving the dock they were milling near the south western part of San Juan Island. In order to give our passengers, the best possible opportunity to view Transient Orca, we decided to head straight for this family before they moved too...

Olivia | M/V Sea Lion | August 8th, 2020 | 17:30

Setting out on our sunset trip, Captain Pete and I decided to head south again in the direction of Hein Bank to follow up on a Humpback Whale rumor that was potentially traveling north in our direction. Being a long haul on our classic whale watching vessel, we decided to go straight there without stopping. Nearing the end of Salmon Bank, we came across a surprise Minke Whale lunge feeding off our port bow. We slowed down the boat and...

Olivia | M/V Sea Lion | August 8th, 2020 | 13:00

For our afternoon trip, we set out south through San Juan Channel in the direction of Hein Bank. Just outside Griffin Bay we spotted a sea lion whipping around an octopus, providing excitement right off the bat. Prior to emerging into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, we made a stop at Whale Rocks to see not only Harbor Seals, but also those Steller’s Sea Lions! We are continuing to see the world’s largest sea lion return to our waters after...

Olivia | M/V Sea Lion | August 4th, 2020 | 17:30

After seeing the T018 family group of Bigg’s Killer Whales on our 13:00 trip, Captain Sarah and I were determined to see them before they moved out of range in order to provide our sunset passengers with the same opportunity. This meant a very quick dock talk and off we went heading north through San Juan Channel, crossing up President’s Channel, and aiming for Sucia Island. On the southeast side of Sucia, we saw the large dorsal fins...

Olivia | M/V Sea Lion | August 4th, 2020 | 13:00

Captain Sarah and I were jazzed that we were able to tell our passengers we were leaving the dock with reports of Transient Orca in our waters. We immediately aimed for the previously known location of these whales in hopes to give our guests the best possible chance of seeing them as we could. This led us to north Rosario Strait, passing a Bald Eagle perched in the pines, just northeast of Orcas Island near Barnes and Clark Islands.

W...

Olivia | M/V Sea Lion | August 2nd, 2020 | 13:30

Starting off our trip, Captain Pete and I decided to head south towards Haro Strait where we have been finding Baleen Whales foraging the past few weeks. On our route we stopped and saw heaps of Steller’s Sea Lions. These are my absolute favorite and the males are starting to return back to our waters after spending the summer in Alaska breeding with those females. The previous week we were only seeing roughly 3-5 individuals and now...

Erick | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 | July 30, 2020

Today was another beautiful, sunny day here in the San Juan Islands. Captain Pete and I left the dock with some great guests in search of the marine wildlife here. We started by heading south towards Cattle Pass. We made our first stop at Turn Rocks just off of Turn Island. Here there were quite a few Pacific Harbor Seals and some pups basking in the beautiful sun. Many of them were holding their ‘banana poses’ where they hold their head...

M/V Sea Lion | Naturalist Alexandria | Thursday, July 30th

Today was a really cool day on M/V Sea Lion!  We headed down to Hein Bank today to search for wild life!  As we got on scene we noticed quite a few bait balls that we stopped to check out, we knew this was a good sign!  Anytime we see bait balls we know that it is worth slowing down and investigating further, sometimes it can be something like a sea lion or a harbor porpoise, but sometimes it can also be what clues us in...