san juan island

Many people come to visit the San Juan Islands in the summer time, our peak season runs from June through August. The summer in the Islands is absolutely beautiful, but many visitors overlook the spring and fall as a great time to visit! Why should you visit in our shoulder seasons? Glad you asked!

1) Wildlife is off the Charts

During the spring and fall we see a transition in our wildlife species as animals start to migrate to and from the islands. In the spring and...

Yesterday we had yet another amazing day of encounters with some of the magnificent cetaceans that call the Salish Sea home. Captain Mike and I headed out on a bit of a grey afternoon in search of adventure and whales, of course. We had a lovely group of guests on board, and even a few birthdays!

We steered the mighty M/V Sea Lion north towards the Canadian Gulf Islands where we found J Pod, part of our Southern Resident Killer Whale population, traveling south through...

1. We can tell Humpback Whales apart by looking at their Tail Flukes and they are Catalogued!

The humpback whale we have been seeing in the last couple of weeks, “Heather” or BCY0160, is a local favorite around the San Juan Islands. She, like all other humpbacks, is readily identified by the markings on the underneath of her broad tail flukes. These makings are all unique to the individual whales, just as our fingerprints are unique to us. The designation BCY0160 is in...

We all know the basics of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, but here are some extra steps you can take to protect the Pacific Northwest’s incredible Salish Sea.  These tips do not just apply to our little corner here in Washington, but also globally.  It is never too late to start making these easy and simple changes to help conserve our natural world.

1. Purchase a Reusable Water Bottle

Not only is this an easy and simple step to help conserve the planet we call home, but it also...

This Monday was another spectacularly sunny day out on the Salish Sea. This inland sea connects the Pacific Ocean to the Puget Sound and the Strait of Georgia via the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and in the middle of all these are the San Juan Islands. This near shore environment that is between many rivers and the open ocean creates a unique marine environment. The cold, nutrient-rich salt water of the North Pacific mix with cool fresh waters produced by the famous rains of...

This Saturday was pretty special.  Our crew had the honor of assisting in the memorial service of a long-time island resident. Our guests said their goodbyes on a beautiful sunny day in between the Olympic Mountains and the San Juan Islands. As the current gently pushed us along in between Lopez and San Juan and the service ended we had a hunch that there may be some Transient Orcas traveling in the thick fog bank sliding out of the Strait. Transient Orcas usually travel...

We were again treated to orcas close to San Juan Island. On the warmest day of the year so far and some of the best sunshine we’ve had in a while, we were definitely ready for another foray into the waters of the Salish Sea.

Again we had no reported whales in the area, but as we have seen in the past few days that does not mean that there are no whales around. We changed things up a bit and headed south, enjoying the scenery of the shorelines of both San Juan Island and...

Yesterday did not seem as though its was going have such a magical outcome. We left the dock with no good report of orcas. Then, thirty minutes off the dock, Captain Mike pulled me into the wheelhouse to pass along the news: Orcas, and lots of them! I hurriedly passed the news along to guests as we cruised under sunny San Juan skies watching gulls and harbor porpoise flit past.

We continued North around East Point on Saturna Island in British Columbia and stopped to...

I don’t know about you, but I love babies, and most of all I love orca babies! Especially when they spyhop and fluke and are extra chubby. First though I got to back up. This Saturday, the M/V Sea Lion received reports of killer whales off the west side of San Juan Island, heading north through Haro Strait. We set off with Capt. Mike, Naturalist Sarah, and myself to go find these big, black and white animals on another spectacularly beautiful, sunny, spring day.

As we...

We woke up this morning and it felt like summer! The sun was shining, the sky was that special shade of San Juan blue, and there were reports of whales! We headed north out of the harbor skirting the shore of San Juan Island. There were so many bald eagles out and about today, pretty much everywhere we looked we could find one! I think our end count today on eagles was right around 29 individuals!

We headed out into the northern portion of Haro Strait to a pair of...