Lauren | M/V Osprey | Thursday, June 26th, 2025 | 12:30 PM

Our first stop today on our Classic Whale Watch and Wildlife tour was to Goose Island, to observe a slew of harbor seals and several different bird species. Today we had an insanely low tide, -3.1 to be exact. We have a massive tidal flux here in the San Juans, at times up to 13 feet! This means that at different times of day there is actually a different amount of islands that make up the Archipelago. At low tide, there are 743 island...

Lauren | M/V Osprey | Monday, June 23rd, 2025 | 2:00 PM

The Bigg’s Killer Whale matriline the T049A’s is a group of 7 whales in total, but seeing all 7 traveling together is a rarity. The two eldest boys tend to travel solo, or with other relatives or non-related whales. This family includes:

• T049A/Nan — (F) 1986
  • T049A1/Noah — (M) 2001
  • T049A2/Jude — (M) 2007
  • T049A3/Nat — (M) 2011
  • T049A4/Neptune — (M) 2014
  • T049A5/Nebula — (F) 2017
  • T049A6/Charlie II — (M)  2022

Today was a very special day, because we were...

Olivia Ellman | M/V Osprey | June 25th, 2025 | 12:30 PM 

We had another great day on the water this afternoon, where we got to spend time with two different Bigg’s Killer Whale matrilines that I have not seen before! Before leaving the dock, we had reports of these whales off the eastern side of Orcas Island, so we began traveling in that direction. Along our interisland cruise, we made a stop to see a number of harbor seals outside of Obstruction Pass. We got to see a few inch their way into the...

Olivia Ellman | M/V Osprey | Friday, June 20th, 2025 | 12:30 PM

Today’s Classic tour gave us a beautiful cruise through San Juan and Spieden Channels. We began by heading north out of Friday Harbor, and searched along the coastlines for wildlife. Once we turned West into Spieden Channel, we soon saw  boats in the distance near Henry Island that were with a group of two different Bigg’s Killer Whale matrilines! Based on photo ID, we knew these were the T65Bs and T75Bs. We have seen these families...

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 | May16th, 2025 | M/V Osprey | 2:00pm

What a quest we had today viewing Bigg’s Killer Whales in Canada! We started out searching north of San Juan Island and into Boundary Pass. With no other confirmed sightings in the area and one report coming in from the Saanich Inlet, we decided to start making our way in that direction hoping the whales would decide to venture a little further east. We weren’t sure if we would make it that far, but since we left the dock about 15 minutes early...

Lauren | M/V Osprey | Wednesday, May 7th | 2:00 PM

Today’s whale watch felt like a Hallmark Movie, or a game winning Hail Mary pass. The odds were stacked against us, but we prevailed. We left the dock knowing that no boats from Friday Harbor had found killer whales during their morning tours. It was crickets out there. The M/V Osprey decided to head north, aiming for Speiden Island. We slow cruised by the historic “Safari Island” looking at loads of wildlife. We viewed Steller’s Sea Lions...

Lauren | M/V Osprey | Wednesday, April 30th | 2:00 PM

Today’s Classic Whale Watch & Wildlife Tour took a lengthy trip north up into the Strait of Georgia! We began our tour by departing Friday Harbor and aiming for Presidents Channel. On our way to Presidents we slowly cruised by McConnell Island to look at a bald eagle perched high up on a tree top. We continued northeast and got a glimpse of some harbor porpoise surfacing between Waldron and Orcas Island. We made our way through Boundary Pass...

Lauren | M/V Osprey | Saturday, April 26th | 12:30 PM

Today’s tour was a testament of how much can change in an instant in the world of watching whales. Out here we are at the will of the wildlife, and although we prefer it that way, the whales have a funny way of humbling us humans and our plans.

We left the dock with a report of two Bigg’s Killer Whales by Moresby Island. Moresby Island is a Canadian Island located just northwest of Turn Point Lighthouse on Stuart Island. Turn Point is famously...

Lauren | M/V Osprey | Wednesday, April 9th | 2:00 pm

Today was our first tour aboard the M/V Osprey, our largest vessel in the fleet. A fully booked tour on our largest vessel can mean only one thing… Summer is coming! We boarded our eager passengers and headed out of Friday Harbor. We had a report of an animal south of Lopez Island, but with the report being pretty far away, we had no time for prior stops. We cruised south in San Juan Channel and through Cattle Pass, taking looks at the Olympic...