Lauren | M/V Kestrel | Monday, June 11th, 2025 | 2:00 PM

We were spoiled today. There were whale reports galore, and the Salish Sea was booming with wildlife! Our Adventure Whale Watch & Wildlife tour ended up seeing three different Bigg’s Killer Whale families in three different bodies of water! 

We began our tour by heading east on an inter-island cruise. Our destination was to Rosario Strait to catch up with a family of Bigg’s Killer Whales known as the T123’s. This family of four was taking...

Lauren | M/V Osprey | Monday, June 9th, 2025 | 2:00 PM

We started our Classic Whale Watch & Wildlife tour by taking an inter-island cruise. We headed east across San Juan Channel and made our way into Upright Channel. Our first stop was to take a look at an active bald eagle's nest on the northeast side of Shaw Island. After getting great looks at this eagle in its impressive nest, we continued towards a whale report near Orcas Island. I’m not sure if it’s just a coincidence, or maybe the whales...

Lauren | M/V Osprey | Saturday, June 7th, 2025 | 12:30 PM

Today I had one of the most rewarding days of my career. I got to finally meet one of the whales I got to nickname! Each whale in the Coastal Biggs population gets an alphanumeric designation, along with a nickname. For the alphanumeric designation, each family gets a number and then it goes back-and-forth between letter and number based on lineage. For example, in this family of whales, the matriarch's designation is T036B. Which means...

Lauren | M/V Kestrel | Friday, June 6th, 2025 | 2:00 PM

Our Adventure Whale Watch & Wildlife Tour began with the M/V Kestrel heading south in San Juan Channel. We slowly cruised by Goose Island getting looks at the Double-Crested Cormorant nests with Cattle Point lighthouse as the backdrop. We made our way into the Strait of Juan De Fuca admiring the beautiful Olympic Peninsula in the distance. We then headed Southwest towards an exciting whale report! We got word that at least two families of...

Lauren | M/V Kestrel | Thursday, June 5th, 2025 | 3:00 PM

We had a triple fluking extravaganza on our Adventure Tour today! We began our journey by heading north in San Juan Channel. Our first order of business was to search through Boundary Pass. Boundary hadn’t been scanned in awhile, so we decided to see if anything had popped up. We exited San Juan Channel and cruised into Spring Passage, pointed northeast towards Presidents Channel. While searching for whales, we decided to take our guests...

Lauren | M/V Osprey | Wednesday, June 4th 2025 | 12:30 PM

We started our Classic Whale Watch & WIldlife Tour off by taking a left out of Friday Harbor and heading north into San Juan Channel. Our first stop was to McConnell Island to view two bald eagles perched high up on a tree top. We made our way into Spring Passage and then northeast into Presidents Channel. As we made our way towards Rosario Strait we were greeted by gorgeous views of Mount Baker. We then traveled to the northwest point of...

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

We are three months into the 2025 whale watching season here in the San Juan Islands. Three months in, and today was the first trip all season that my guests and I observed breaching killer whales! What an absolute treat this trip was. We left the dock with a loose plan of heading northwest to catch up on a report of a humpback whale over in the Haro Strait. Not long after heading that way we got an exciting update: A large group of killer...

Olivia Esqueda | Monday, June 2nd | M/V Osprey | 2:00pm 

Wow. This was a truly incredible day out on the water, and definitely one of my favorites all season! We started the trip by heading south through San Juan Channel, passing Goose Island with all the birds and Harbor Seals hanging out on its shores. We didn’t spend too much time before passing Cattle Point Lighthouse and beginning our transit to south Hein Bank. We were receiving reports of not one, but two Humpback Whales feeding and...

Olivia Esqueda | May 29th, 2025 | M/V Osprey | 12:30pm

What a fun day out exploring in the Salish Sea! We spent the afternoon up north in the Strait of Georgia hanging out with Big Mama [Humpback Whale, BCY0324] and her new calf! While this is her 8th known calf, she is also a grandma AND great-grandma! 

Big Mama is one of our favorites out here and who we tip our hat to for the comeback of the Humpback Whales in the Salish Sea. After being heavily whaled out of this area, there were no more...

Olivia Esqueda | May 28th, 2025 | M/V Kestrel | 2:00pm

What a fun day on Kestrel with Captain Vaun! We had a small group of folks, which always leads to more personal conversations and deeper storytelling when it comes to the area, the wildlife, and the history of the islands. We worked our way south through San Juan Channel, making a slow cruise past Goose Island to see many different bird species, including Pelagic Cormorants, Double Crested Cormorants, Pigeon Guillemots, Canada Geese...