Piper | Wednesday, June 19, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 PM

Today was a bit of a blustery day in the Salish Sea, but Captain Gabe, Laura, and I had an awesome group of folks on the Sea Lion and we headed north into San Juan Channel on the lookout for all sorts of wildlife! There was a report of a lone male Bigg’s killer whale in Canadian waters so we headed that way and spied a bald eagle in the trees on Spieden Island and some harbor porpoises nearby!

We arrived on scene shortly...

Naturalist Alexandria | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 PM | June 18th, 2019

Today was a great day on the water!  We started out the day with a report of Bigg’s Killer Whales off Waldron Island.  We decided to head north to go check out these reports.

Today was a pretty windy day out on the water so we were happy to hear that conditions were calmer through San Juan Channel and up to Boundary Pass where these whales were spotted.  This was great news because based on the wind trends we had...

Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 06/17/19 | 12:00pm

What an unbelievably special day out on the water! The sun was shining brightly in the sky and filled everyone with excitement immediately. Captain Erick, naturalist Piper and I took our largest boat, the M/V Sealion out of Friday harbor towards promising prospects up north. We went up through the San Juan Channel, past Flattop Island and into Boundary Pass.

With Canada in the distance, we spotted our whales off the north point of Stuart...

Piper | Sunday, June 16, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 PM

Happy Father’s Day! Today the M/V Sea Lion was crewed by Captain Erick, Erin, and me and we left Friday Harbor with a really awesome group of people who were super engaged and asked some awesome questions about the conservation and ecology of wildlife out in the Salish Sea. We headed north and traveled really far up past Boundary Pass and up Swanson Channel to check out a lone male Bigg’s killer whale, T77A.

T77A, also known as...

Laura | Saturday June 15, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12pm/ 5:30pm

Today was a wonderful day out on the water aboard M/V Sea Lion!  We first found a large congregation of harbor seals hauled out along the rocks of the east side of Flat Top, one of the nearby islands along the San Juan Channel.  Some of these seals were jumping in the water and a few came close by our vessel to check out the passenger!  The seas were so calm today we were able to view a bunch of jellyfish looking down from...

Erin | M/V Sea Lion | Friday, June 14, 2019 | 12:00 PM

What a fantastic afternoon out in the Salish Sea! It began with humpback whales directly outside of Friday Harbor. We headed a couple of minutes south before seeing two humpback whales. They were diving at the same time and coming up to the surface at the same time. We got to see both of their flukes come up out of the water, and the whales were identified as Heather and Raptor, who are two female humpback whales. After seeing...

M/V Kestrel | 11:00 AM | Naturalist Alexandria | June 14th, 2019

What a fantastic day today turned out to be!  We loaded onto M/V Kestrel, excited for the day ahead!  We met Captain Gabe down on the dock and eagerly boarded onto the vessel.  As we headed out we didn’t have any firms reports to go off of, but Captain Gabe had heard a rumor over the radio of a family of orcas that was spotted off the West Side of San Juan Island.

We headed south down San Juan Channel to see if we...

Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 06/13/19 | 12:00pm

Today started as a beautiful day in Friday Harbor! The sun was shining, and it truly felt like one of the first real summer day here in the San Juan Islands. Captain Sarah, Naturalist Erick, Naturalist Laura and I took our beautiful boat, the Sea Lion, out for a day of adventure! We were incredibly lucky to hear multiple reports of whales. So, we set out to find whales, excited for what the day had to offer.

We headed northeast through...

Laura | June 12, 2019 | Sea Lion | 12:00

Today we had a fantastic day out on the water on M/V Sea Lion!  We departed Friday Harbor heading out to San Juan channel and were lucky enough to find Bigg’s killer whales not far from shore! 

The family pod consisted of Sidney T123A, Stanley T123B, Lucky T123C, and a young calf T123D whose name will be up and coming!  We spent a perfect amount of time with this family as they cruised around the area and showed off their impressive blows or...

Naturalist Alexandria | M/V Sea Lion | June 11, 2019 | 5:30 PM

What an awesome evening tour we had today!  We were with orcas earlier today for our noon tour, but had heard on the radio once we got back that the orcas we were had headed out of the area by the time we were ready for our sunset trip.  This is always possible, one time of day for a trip isn’t better than the other, but our whales here can swim over 100 miles in one day, so it is always possible that we have them for one...