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 30th 2025 | 10:00 am

Today was such beautiful weather and we got so lucky with our expedition for today.

We started our search north towards Spieden Island and as soon as we got there whales were sighted on the other side! Great timing! We made our way along to watch them and were greeted by the T075Bs! This family consists of the mother (Pebbles) and her children (Jasper, Rubble, Petra, and an unnamed newborn). This was an amazing experience as they started...

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...

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...

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...