Logan Stecker | M/V Kestrel | August 27th 2025 | 2:00 pm

What an amazing outing out on the water! Today we headed northbound to follow reports of Killer Whales near Saturna Island. On the way we stopped by White Rocks and learned more about Transient Killer Whale prey by observing dozens of seals hauled out on the rocks. Many of these seals were small and young having just come out of this year’s pupping season. Seals in this area have gotten to carrying capacity meaning that they are at the...

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...

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 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...

Lauren | M/V Kestrel | Thursday, August 7th, 2025 | 2:00 PM

The T018’s are back, and they brought the T109A’s with them! This group of nine orcas were found traveling up the west side of San Juan Island. Since these whales were right in the neighborhood, the M/V Kestrel decided to hit some wildlife stops first. As we departed Friday Harbor we took a left and headed north in San Juan Channel. We quickly made our first stop as Captain Gabe spotted a bald eagle in the treeline off the eastside of...

Logan Stecker | M/V Kestrel | August 10th 2025 | 2:00 pm

Today was a great trip out in the Salish Sea! We got to see a lot of British Columbia and the islands east of Vancouver Island.

We started our trip scanning the beautiful waters of Boundary Pass after a trip along Spieden to find Bald Eagles. The waters here were beautiful and showed a strong contrast line between repeating waves and a calming glossy upwelling we were sitting on while getting great views of Mt. baker backdropping Turn...

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

The morning search started with great success! Our boat followed along the shoreline of Friday Harbor searching for whales and we ended up encountering the T109As! This was quite the surprise having barely left San Juan Channel. We followed along as they explored the coast and passed Roche Harbor. The 1-year-old in the group (Weiss) was very excited and was breaching out of the water quite often! They were quite bubbly and a joy to watch...

Logan Stecker | M/V Kestrel | August 9th 2025 | 2:00 pm

Great viewing out on the water today! Our groups had a great time in between stops competing to find harbor porpoise swimming along us which was fun. We also go to see a lot of seals hauled out on Sentinel rocks which was great foreshadowing to the seal hunting by killer whales out by Sidney spit.

This groups of three orcas we got to watch were the T019s—a mother (Nootka) and two very large adult sons (Galiano and Spouter). After getting to...