June 16th, 2022

Abby Dahl

12:30pm Osprey

Gabe, Maxx, Helena and I took to the water as we wrestled the current coming out of Friday Harbor. Bald eagles sat perched in the tree tops at Friday Harbor Labs, and the water shimmered an emerald green. We stopped at Flattop Island on our cruise north, rumors of humpback whales in almost the same place we left them the day before; same individuals too.

We took photos and watched the harbor seals roll around the rocky shoreline, many of them...

June 14, 2022

Abby Dahl

12:30pm Osprey

We took off out of the harbor, rumors of two humpback whales to the north. We zipped through San Juan Channel towards Boundary Pass, harbor seals and harbor porpoise ducking under the water in the distance. It was a clear day, visibility several miles in all directions.

Once we turned into the Strait of Georgia, we saw the humpbacks, identified as:

Divot (Female, born in 2003 to “Big Mama”)

Orion (Juvenile, birth year unknown)

As we watched them...

June 13th, 2022

Abby Dahl

12:30pm Osprey

It was a windy day in the harbor. After departing the dock and spotting multiple bald eagles along the Friday Harbor Labs treeline, we made our way north through San Juan Channel. We passed Spieden Island and turned west pas Roche Harbor at the northern tip of San Juan Island. There were reports of a humpback whale traveling in an unpredictable pattern through Haro Strait. The whale hadn’t been seen in 45 minutes, so our trip turned into a...

June 9th, 2022

Abby Dahl

12:30pm Osprey

We boarded Osprey on a typical, rainy northwest afternoon. Cruising out of the harbor, we turned northbound and entered the San Juan Channel. Reports loomed of a humpback whale mother and calf heading through Boundary Pass, so we thought we’d give it a go, scanning for orcas along the way as the misty air hung in a still balance amidst a lush island backdrop.

We cruised along while harbor seals seemed to drift in and out of sleep on the rocky...

Maxx K. | M/V Osprey | 06/01/2022 | 12:30pm

    Humpback whales are just the coolest. Here in the Salish Sea we have a “Humpback Highway” of sorts; these massive 45 tonne animals will travel in through the Juan De Fuca and will often then take a hard left up and through the Haro Strait, through Boundary Pass and often again up and around towards the north. What truly blows my mind the most is that these animals will make this trek year after year, taking the same specific turns...

Olivia | M/V Sea Lion | May 23rd, 2022 | 12:30pm

The Pacific Northwest decided to pull one of her most cliché moves by raining on a day that didn’t call for it; but off we went with happy faces ready for whatever the day brought. Heading north, we stopped at Flattop Island admiring heaps of Pigeon Guillemots with their red feet bold against the green water. Nearby we found several Harbor Seals swimming along the basalt rock as well as an adult Bald Eagle stoically looking across the...

Olivia | M/V Kestrel | August 7th, 2020 | 14:00

The Hail Mary works again! Captain Brian and I decided to take a chance and head far south on our afternoon adventure trip in an attempt to see Killer Whales between Whidbey and Camano Islands. This was a long shot as there was no coverage on the whales and we would have to find them ourselves, in addition to going far and pushing our time limits with the four-hour trip. We decided it was worth it to give it our all for our passengers...

Olivia | September 28th, 2019 | M/V Kestrel | 11:00am

Sadly, today was my last Kestrel trip of the season with Captain Gabe and we decided early on that it was going to be epic. Being one of the first boats out on the water, we often must travel into areas where there haven’t been other boats in order to find potential whale sightings. We heard of a Humpback Whale near Battleship Island north of Roche Harbor, but decided to go scope out waters elsewhere due to the amount of boats...

Olivia | September 8th, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00pm

What a fun day Captain Sarah and I had with all our passengers on M/V Sea Lion! We started off the trip by heading north where we immediately began seeing Harbor Porpoises rounding San Juan Island through Spieden Channel. After taking a quick stop at Spieden Island to see Bald Eagles, Harbor Seals, and heaps of Mouflon Sheep, we continued towards Stuart Island where we ran into our solo Bigg’s Killer Whale, T49A3! This goofy...

(April 27, 2017) Our guests today were treated to an encounter with “Big Mama,” a school bus-sized member of the baleen whale family.  Just a few decades ago, humpback whales such as Big Mama were on track to becoming locally extinct in the northeast Pacific.  After a moratorium was placed on commercial whaling, several whale species began to recover their populations.  Today there are estimated to be about 20,000 humpbacks in this part of the world.

In some parts of the world...