June 30th, 2022

Abby Dahl

10am M/V Kestrel

Captain Michael and I peeled out of the harbor, knowing it was about to be a long journey in our search for whales. We had only one report of Bigg’s killer whales near Race Rocks in British Columbia, Canada, so we took a right and began heading south through San Juan Channel. It was almost ironic, as we immediately found a pair of humpback whales upon our southbound journey. They were taking long dives, so we only saw them a few times before...

Helena

6/29/2022

MV Kestrel

Our first encounter of the day was with a Stellar Sea Lion chowing down what appeared to be large chunks of a fish in the middle of a baitball! A baitball is large cluster of small schooling fish near the surface of the water, from our vessels we can identify a bait ball by large groups of birds sitting or taking dives and low swoops at the waterline. We continued south down San Juan Channel to Whale Rocks where we found more Stellar Sea Lions and Harbor...

Maxx K. | M/V Kestrel | 06/28/2022 | 2:00pm

    Sometimes it's really nice to mix things up. We are super fortunate for pretty stellar weather during the summer: sunny skies and little wind. Though every now and again Mother Nature mixes it up on us, and today was one of those days. 

    Kestrel zoomed out of Friday Harbor southbound, shooting out of Cattle Pass and rounding the southern shores of Lopez Island. We stopped at Davidson Rock where we heard rumors of a Humpback whale. 

 ...

Maxx K. | M/V Kestrel | 06/29/2022 | 10:00am

    Forgive me, but I’m gonna geek out here during this blog. Bigg’s Killer Whales are obviously fascinating for a myriad of reasons but I’m never more impressed than when I get lucky enough to see a T-Party of whales. A T-Party is essentially an informal nickname given to the circumstances when several families of Transient whales (related or not) come together for whatever purpose; feeding, socialization, reproducing, family cookouts...

Maxx K. | M/V Kestrel | 06/27/2022 | 2:00pm

    It’s was a bomby summers day. Kestrel absolutely flew threw the San Juan Channel, cutting through the velvety water with ease. We raced up and around through Waldron Island, stopping briefly once to scope out Skipjack Island and dozens of Harbor seals that rested along its rocky shorelines. 

Harbor seals haul out onto rocks for a variety of reasons such as rest, thermoregulation, birthing and nursing. This gives us a great opportunity...

10:00 am

Today’s adventure tour started out as a shockingly hot morning on land. Our guests, and myself, were eager to zip around on the water and cool off. We departed from Friday Harbor scanning the exposed shorelines due to the low tides hoping to find some Harbor Seals. We came across a reef nearby Yellow Island with some curious Harbor Seals hauled out and a Bald Eagle watching from the reef marker. We made our way around the island and across San Juan Channel where we found a...

Helena

6/24/22

Kestrel

2pm

We headed southeast through Lopez Sound and Thatcher Pass to Cypress Island, where we’d gotten word of a humpback surfacing nearly 200 yards from the south coast of the island. Humpbacks are baleen whales and they migrate to the Salish Sea each summer to their feeding grounds. Our highly productive waters bring a wide variety of small schooling fish, such as herring, mackerel and sand lance, that these humpbacks will eat up to 3,000 pounds of every day...

Helena

MV Kestrel

6/24/2022

10am 

Another fabulously sunny day on MV Kestrel allowed for some crystal clear viewing of cetaceans, pinnipeds and shore birds here in the Salish Sea. We departed Friday Harbor and headed south towards the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Views of the Olympics off our bow and Mount Baker to our portside allowed for an unbelievable backdrop throughout our adventure today. First stop was Goose Rock where we viewed several double crested cormorants perched atop...

Maxx K. | M/V Kestrel | 06/21/2022 | 2:00pm

    One of my favorite things about working as a naturalist is trying to interpret what is going on in the head of a whale. They are assumed to be some of the smartest creatures on the planet: Killer whales in particular have the second largest brains in the animal kingdom AND the second largest brain to body ratio (another presumed indicator of intelligence). The inherit intelligence and personality of a killer whale, something we only get...

Maxx K. | M/V Kestrel | 06/21/2022 | 10:00am

    I love a morning tour, for a lot of reasons really, but also because there is a real sense of urgency and tension. Being a part of the PWWA is such a great tool, not only are we able to collect and share data about whale behavior but we’re also able to stay up to date on where they’re being located. Given that none of the whales seen out here are tagged, we're reliant on spotting them ourselves! 

    At 10:00 in the morning, it’s easy...