Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 07/11/19 | 1:30pm

WOW! Today was unbelievable. We saw so much wildlife, it was fantastic.

Captain Erick, Naturalist Piper and I took our vessel, the Sea Lion out of Friday Harbor and headed up north through the San Juan Channel. We boated all the way up to Boundary Pass near Moresby Island where we saw orca whales!

Here we saw our first pod of orcas identified as the T77s! This group consisted of 5 whales including one of the newest members of the entire...

Olivia | July 9th, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30pm

For our rainy sunset tour, Captain Gabe immediately started heading south past the Cattle Point Lighthouse down into the Strait of Juan de Fuca where we had far away whale sightings from earlier in the day. While he was determined to show our passengers whales, I started handing out rain slickers and heaps of blankets for our hour and 15-minute trek south. While on route, we spotted Harbor Seals and Harbor Porpoises swimming about which...

M/V Sea Lion | July 9th, 2019 | Naturalist Alexandria | 1:30 PM

What a fantastic day this trip ended up being!  We left the dock with reports of orcas on the cusp of our range, and decided that we would go for it!  After checking with all of our friends on board we decided that if we had the chance of seeing orcas today it was absolutely worth the trek!

We headed south into the Strait of Juan de Fuca and worked our way past numerous banks towards where these reports came from.

As we...

Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 07/08/19 | 1:30pm

What a really fantastic day out on the water! The sun was out but there were clouds in the distance painting the horizon with beautiful puffy whiteness. Captain Gabe, Naturalist Erin and I set out of Friday Harbor on our vessel and headed north through the San Juan Channel to reports of wildlife.

Boating near Waldron Island, we stopped by a place called White Rocks where we found a bunch of harbor seals! There were literally mounds of seals...

Erin | M/V Sea Lion | Sunday, July 7, 2019 | 5:30 PM

What a wonderful evening we had in the Salish Sea! When we left Friday Harbor, the rain was starting to slow down and we could see the sun trying to peak out of the clouds. We were excited because we were heading to the area we had seen orcas in on our previous trip. We headed north out of Friday Harbor and saw lots of harbor porpoises as we headed through San Juan Channel. They were popping up all around our boat and everyone was...

Piper | Sunday, July 7, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30 PM

Today was a drizzly Pacific Northwest summer day and leaving the docks we had a day full of possibilities ahead of us! We started moving northwest and were heading over the top of Stuart Island when a report of Bigg’s killer whales came over the radio! They were just a few miles away so we turned the Sea Lion in their direction and about fifteen minutes later we arrived on scene with a family of marine mammal-eating orcas! This...

Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 07/06/19 | 5:30pm

What an exciting day out on the water! It all started as Captain Erick, Naturalist Piper and I set out of Friday Harbor down the San Juan Channel towards reports of whales down off the south side of San Juan.

We boated south and passed Cattle Point lighthouse as beautiful shadows started to cast down through the clouds. The calm water turned rough as we entered the Salmon Bank and out into the Haro Strait. Brave people road the bow like a...

Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 07/06/19 | 1:30pm

Today, was a very special day for the Salish Sea! Why you ask? Because the Southern Resident Orcas are back!! For the first time in weeks J, K and L pods have been spotted in the San Juan Islands! This literally made national news! So, we were incredibly lucky to be able to boat out and see these amazing, special and famous whales!

Captain Erick, Naturalist Piper and I set out of Friday Harbor towards reports of whales! We headed up through...

Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 07/05/19 | 5:30pm

Today was truly one of my favorite whale watches of the season!

It started with the sun starting to sink lower in the sky as Captain Erick and I loaded the boat with all our passengers and headed out of Friday Harbor. We boated up around the south side of Shaw Island right next to Canoe Island and almost immediately found orca whales!

We were so lucky to find the T65As right away only a few minutes from the harbor. As we arrived, this...

Laura C. | 7/5/2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30pm

After a beautiful 4th of July on San Juan Island, the party continued out in the Salish Sea among orcas!  Passengers and crew were so excited to hear reports of Bigg’s killer whales right past San Juan Channel near Waldron Island!  We slowly approached the area and waited patiently as the reported family of killer whales were on a dive.  Luckily these whales were clocking six-minute dives today and in a short matter of time we started...