Welcome to the Whale Report Blog

Olivia Ellman | M/V Kestrel | August 16th 2025 | 10:00 am I hadn't been in Lopez Sound all season, so today was definitely a fun time exploring the beautiful shorelines while watching one of our favorite Bigg's Killer Whale families. When we left the harbor, we had heard about this report of whales traveling inter island so we decided to go that way for our best chance of catching up to them. We zoomed by Shaw Island, and made a brief stop to search for bald eagles by a nest. We got great...

Logan Stecker | M/V Kestrel | August 22nd 2025 | 10:00 am

A great morning to be out looking for whales! Every morning trip begins with anticipation and excitement as no whales have been found yet and we get to try and predict the best areas to search based on yesterday’s movements and groups.

Today with a combination of luck and skill, we found the whales early on! This was near the Darcy islands and the group of 5 we found were the T049As! The mother of this group, Nan, is 39 years old and...

Logan Stecker | M/V Kestrel | August 22nd 2025 | 2:00 pm

 

A beautiful afternoon to be on a boat. Leaving Friday Harbor, we began a journey south past Cattle point making our first stop at Whale Rocks. There we saw a multitude of large male Steller’s Sea Lions battling it out for space and playing on the rocks. This species is the largest sea lion in the world and has a skull similar in size and shape to a Grizzly Bear. The larger sagittal crest atop the skull gives surface area for muscle to...

Logan Stecker | M/V Kestrel | August 20th 2025 | 10:00 am

 

Today we had an amazing time viewing whales in an area we rarely go to: Skagit Bay!

 

We started our trip going south to search for whales in the Juan de Fuca enjoying the beautiful weather and views of the Olympic mountains. On the way we stopped at Whale Rocks and watched a group of Steller Sea Lions fighting and splashing about on the rocks. Each grunt was guttural, and we got a great smell for them too, it was quite an intimate time...

Olivia Ellman | M/V Kestrel | Thursday August 14th, 2025 | 2:00 pm

Today’s afternoon trip was quite an adventure as Captain Vaun and I ventured through the Gulf Islands of British Columbia into an area we both hadn’t been to before. Since the closest whale sighting was far away when we left the dock, we zoomed in that direction. We heard news of rougher water crossing the Haro, so we took a more northern route and once we reached Turn Point we could see that the waters were not as bad as we were...

Lauren | M/V Osprey | Thursday, August 14th, 2025 | 12:30 PM

Today we went the distance! The M/V Osprey made the 30 mile trek from Friday Harbor  to Cowichen Bay on the east coast of Vancouver Island. We got a report that whales were picked up in Saanich Inlet heading north. These whales heading north was a good sign, but if they headed northwest we would be in a predicament. We left the dock and headed for these whales, hoping for the best. With no time for stops, we left Friday Harbor and...

Lauren | M/V Osprey | Sunday, August 10th, 2025 | 12:30 PM

Each killer whale in the Coastal Bigg’s Population is given an alphanumeric designation and they are also given a nickname. The industry professionals in this region are in charge of nicknaming these whales. We put forth ideas and then all vote to determine the winning name. Many of the nicknames are random, while others have a more intentional theme. For the T109A’s there are two main themes that were considered when giving names. Many...

Logan Stecker | M/V Kestrel | August 13th 2025 | 2:00 pm

 

What a spectacular trip! We had rough waters in the south today so we tentatively went northbound hoping the whales up there would not evade us. We made our trip as efficient as possible with short looks at Spieden island, the Turn point Lighthouse (the northwest point of the lower 48 states and jumping pink salmon.

 

Our luck saved us as the group of whales we were trying to make it to turned south towards us and we got to meet them along...

Lauren | M/V Osprey | Friday, August 8th, 2025 | 12:30 PM

Our Classic Whale Watch & Wildlife Tour departed Friday Harbor and headed north towards an exciting whale report. The fan favorites the T018’s have been out and about and we were stoked to hear they were back in our range today! There has been much debate on what to call this family of three, as industry professionals refer to them as both the T018’s and T019’s. The T018s is (or was) made up of three generations of orcas. 

T018/Esperanza is...

Logan Stecker | M/V Kestrel | August 11th 2025 | 2:00 pm

 

We ventured on a long journey today. A successful venture to find killer whales that took us all the way beyond Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula. We got to watch some of the T046B1s, a group of Transient Killer Whales (mammal eating ecotype) as they traveled along the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Some relatives of theirs in the T046B lineage were also seen in the area further west of the 4 we watched.

 This family had a member named Tl’uk...