August 28- M/V Sea Lion- 1:30 pm

Yesterday we left the dock at Friday Harbor and went North towards British Columbia.  We came across a few families of transient orcas, specifically the T100’s and the T124D’s.  In total we had 8 whales milling about in the Strait of Georgia.  Those families include a nice variety of individuals from a sprouting male to a young juvenile.  The whales were in two groups and moving very erratically, which can be somewhat difficult to maneuver around to...

August 26- M/V Sea Lion- 1:30 pm

We left the dock at Friday Harbor and North towards a report of a few transient orcas.  We decided to spend some time at Spieden island to look for some of our other wildlife.  We got to see some bald eagles, harbor seal, and some introduced sheep.  After getting our fill of wildlife we went to find some whales!  We came across a sibling pair of transient orcas.  It was T65A3, who is 11 years old, and T65A4, who is 7 years old.  These two siblings...

Guests aboard M/V Sea Lion along with the crew had quite a day today! Heading out Naturalists Eric, Captain Gabe, and I were struggling to decide what group of orcas to go watch! There being a couple of reports of whales nearby from other boats, we decided to go through Upright Channel to the north side of Lopez to encounter a group. There were two young transient orca in this group traveling apart from their pod, which was further southwest. This was not typical behavior of two...

Jordan | August 21, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30 trip

What a great day out on the water! Despite the fog and smoke that is still lingering around the San Juan Islands, we had a great day cruising around the Salish Sea.

We headed south down through the San Juan Channel and stopped by Whale Rocks to check out some Steller sea lions! These animals are HUGE and yet seem super elegant in the water…until they crawl up on land and lumber and roll around. We also saw some harbor seals that are...

Leaving the harbor aboard M/V Sea Lion with Captain Pete and naturalist Eric, I️ was excited to be on the water on such a sunny August day after a couple of foggy ones. There was a report of a humpback not too far away from us, so we decided to head that direction. 

Headed up north towards Waldron Island, we took a left out of the harbor into San Juan Channel. The guests were enthusiastic and many seemed very interested to learn about the conservation efforts being carried out...

Jordan | August 18, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30 trip

What a beautiful evening trip in the San Juan Islands! As the sun started to set behind the picturesque clouds, we headed out of Friday Harbor to search for our whales. We headed south through the San Juan Channel and towards Victoria on Vancouver Island.

Before we reached Canadian waters, we found the whales! Suddenly we were surrounded by Southern Resident whales all around our boat! It was so exciting seeing the magnificent...

August 18- M/V Sea Lion- 1:30 pm

For our tour today we had a report of some transient orcas near some small islands on the North side of Orcas island.  On our way up to that report we saw some harbor porpoise in Presidents channel.  We then got to a group of orcas call the T2C’s.  This particular group is interesting because they have a sprouting male who has a severe case of scoliosis.  It is pretty well known that cetaceans can have scoliosis but this particular individual is the...

It was a beautiful day to be out on the water and even better, Jpod had just came in yesterday after a few days of being gone. Captain Pete, naturalist Rachel and I️ were really excited to get out on the water although a very chilly day for August and a bit rainy. As we left Friday harbor, there were reports of the orca on the west side moving up the San Juan coast, so we decided to round the northern tip of the island and head south to encounter them. 

Headed up the San Juan...

[Thursday, 8/16/18, M/V Sea Lion Noon & 5:30PM]

On Thursday, the M/V Sea Lion had two wonderful trips out on the Salish Sea. Naturalists Sarah and I on both trips took great groups of people out. On our first trip we saw a bunches of Harbor Seals swimming around and resting on rocks on Whale Rocks in Cattle Pass. Then we went to Lawson Reef in Rosario Strait and saw a group of Transient (Bigg’s) Orcas. These orcas are the ecotype that live on the west coast of North America that...

Sea Lion- 8/15 @ 1:30PM

Today was a beautiful day out on the water!  As we got off the dock Captain Pete, Naturalist Piper and myself were very excited at what potential the day would hold!  We had heard reports of Transient orcas out on the water, but knew that we can never be too sure until we actually have our own eyes on them!  We headed out, equipping all of our guests with the tools to make for successful naturalists, since we were all naturalist on board today!

As we got...