Lauren Tschirhart | July 15th, 2026 | M/V Osprey | 12:30 pm

In the interislands of the Salish Sea, it is not often that we get the opportunity to see multiple humpbacks traveling together. Therefore, our encounter today was quite special. We got word that three humpback whales were seen swimming together in Presidents Channel. We departed Friday Harbor and wasted no time getting to that report. We zoomed north through San Juan Channel and Spring Passage and made our way on scene. These three...

Olivia Ellman | M/V Osprey | July 14th, 2026 | 12:30 pm

What a gorgeous day on the water, full of so many different species in our incredible ecosystem. There were some whale reports in Canadian waters when we departed the dock, so we began our travels south towards Victoria. We were immediately greeted by stunning views of Mt. Baker as we entered San Juan Channel, and saw many sea birds and seals as we neared Cattle Pass. We continued our cetacean scanning as we entered Salmon Bank and the...

Lauren Tschirhart | July 13th, 2026 | M/V Osprey | 1:30 pm

Today’s tour was filled with tons of spectacular sightings. We got to observe three different orcas and our tour ended with an unexpected humpback whale sighting. Who doesn’t love surprise whales? The M/V Osprey departed Friday Harbor and headed north in San Juan Channel. Our first wildlife sighting was of several harbor porpoise surfacing to the port side of our vessel. These porpoise surfaced several times, giving most of our guests the...

Lauren Tschirhart | July 12th, 2026 | M/V Osprey | 12:30 pm

Our guests aboard the M/V Osprey got to spend the day observing a group of 6 “Bigg’s” or Transient Orcas. We got to hangout with members of the T046B’s, the specific individuals present during today’s encounter were: 

• T046B/Raksha — female, born in 1988
  • T046B2/Akela — female, born in 2008
    • T046B2B/Takaya — female, born in 2023
  • T046B4/Quiver — male, born in 2014
  • T046B7/Tala — (?) in 2023
  • T046B8/Pi — female, born in 2026

We watched as these whales...

Aly Liu | M/V Osprey | July 11, 2026 | 12:30 pm 

Have you ever attended a T-party? And I don’t mean your typical cup of oolong or earl grey, but rather Transient killer whales! 

We began our journey on the M/V Osprey this afternoon by traveling north up San Juan Channel and west through Spieden Channel, where we enjoyed looks of mouflon sheep on the south side of Spieden Island. Then, around the corner into Haro Strait, we came on scene to killer whale SOUP! Or, shall I say, a pot full of six T’s...

Levi Vandebunte | M/V Osprey | July 10th, 2026 | 12:30pm

This tour had almost immediate excitement. We left Friday Harbor and turned North. About one minute later we spotted a bald eagle standing near the shoreline of San Juan Island. It appeared that it had something in it's talons, but we could not yet tell what it was. Suddenly, the eagle flew off while still holding the prey. We could now clearly see that it had the limp body of a black fox kit in it's talons! We were shocked by this, as...

Olivia Esqueda | July 9th, 2026 | M/V Osprey | 12:30pm

Today ended up being a bit breezy out on the water, but still so sunny and beautiful with incredible cloud formations around the islands, making it an aesthetic boat ride through the San Juan Islands. We headed north through San Juan Channel, passing Flattop Island and finding our way over to White Rock where there was a haul out of Harbor Seals. There were so many color morphs in this group, ranging from all black, all white, yellow, and...

Aly Liu | M/V Osprey | July 8, 2026 | 12:30 pm 

Just moments after leaving the dock at Friday Harbor, a 15-foot blow was seen in the helm off of Canoe Island. Then, a tail fluke descended beneath the Salish Sea. Not only is this fluke beautiful, but it also allows us to match the unique coloration pattern to our photo-identification system; hello humpback whale “Kiarra Kelly” (BCX2473)! This baleen whale is relatively young (first seen in 2022) and is named “Kiarra Kelly” (BCX2473), traveling...

Lauren Tschirhart | July 7th, 2026 | M/V Osprey | 12:30 pm

Our Classic Whale Watch & Wildlife Tour today completed a full circumnavigation of Orcas Island. We departed Friday Harbor and headed north in San Juan Channel. We made our way in between Jones and Orcas Island and then cruised into President’s Channel. While boating through President’s we got great looks at several harbor porpoise surfacing on the port side of our vessel. We made our way into Rosario Strait and were heading for Barnes...

Lauren Tschirhart | July 5th, 2026 | M/V Osprey | 12:30 pm

Our Sunday Classic Whale Watch & Wildlife Tour was spent watching the T100’s in the teal blue waters of Boundary Pass. We first made our way north in San Juan Channel, cruising towards Waldron Island. We got word that a group of three orca whales were spotted near White Rock. It seems like the T100’s have been spotted in the waters around Waldron Island more days than not these past few weeks. We slowly made our way on scene and watched...