Welcome to the Whale Report Blog

Piper | Saturday, June 8, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 PM

Captain Gabe and I were on the Sea Lion today with some awesome folks and there was a report of Bigg’s killer whales just up the channel from us! We left the docks and headed north, arriving with the whales shortly after beginning the tour. We were seeing the T49A’s, a group of five mammal-eating orcas which are made up of mom and her four kiddos, ranging from 18 to just over one year old! The orcas were travelling pretty...

Erin | M/V Kestrel | Saturday, June 8, 2019 | 11:00 AM

Today was an absolutely wonderful day out on the water. We left the harbor and the sun was shining! Within seven minutes of leaving the harbor, we came across a pod of killer whales. This is not a common occurence, so the crew was equally as excited as the passengers. The whales were diving in a zig-zagging pattern, there was some circling behavior by some of the younger whales, and there were lots of birds in the area. It was...

Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 06/07/19 | 5:30 Sunset

As we gathered for our tour, I noticed how wonderfully small our group was! We definitely were lucky to have lots of space to walk around the boat and chat with new friends! Captain Gabe and I took the Sea Lion out of Friday Harbor and headed off in search of some wildlife!

Luckily, we heard reports from other whale watching boats right off the bat! So, we sped off towards the east. We had a fantastic tour of all the islands as we wound...

I have recently uprooted back to the United States after living in New Zealand for a year and a half and decided I wasn’t ready to give up that beautiful scenery. I discovered the San Juan Islands after an impromptu trip with my best friend and decided not only is it incredibly similar to my life down under, but it was a place I needed to be!  Therefore, I packed up my Red Band gumboots in my favorite Osprey backpack and moved out here at the very beginning of May. Being a hard...

Erin | M/V Sea Lion | Friday, June 7, 2019 | 12:00 PM

What a phenomenal day it was out in the Salish Sea! We saw so many different types of wildlife, and the sun decided to show itself as well! We began our trip heading south toward Cattle Point. When we got to Cattle Point, we got some great views of Cattle Point lighthouse. Then we attracted our attention toward Whale Rocks, where there were Steller’s sea lions hauled out on the rocks and swimming in the water around them. There...

Olivia | June 6th, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30pm

What. A. Night. This was the most incredible tour I have had thus far! Captain Gabe and I barely made it out of the harbor; “barely” as in we never had the chance to pick up speed because the family of Bigg’s Killer Whales (T65B’s and T137’s) we saw during the morning tour had traveled about 20 miles north since then and were now directly in front of Friday Harbor. This was extra incredible because our passengers have all traveled far...

Naturalist Alexandria | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00pm | Thursday, June 6th

On this trip today we were lucky enough to see two Humpbacks off Saturna Island!  We started out this trip having a pretty good lead that there was a possibility of seeing Humpbacks today.  As we worked out way up we stopped and checked out Speiden Island, where we got some glances at Moufflan sheep and Sitka and Fallow deer.

We continued traveling up north and eventually met up with our humpback!  After spending a...

Jordan | M/V Kestrel | 06/06/19 | 11:00am

As the sun shone bright overhead and the Salish sea beckoned us to join her, Captain Brian, Naturalist Sarah and I set out towards promising reports of humpback whales up north. But then, almost immediately, we got a brand new report of orca whales off in the Rosario Strait!

Filled with excitement, we headed south down through the San Juan Channel. As we neared Cattle Pass off the southern point of San Juan, we spotted a crazy battle in the...

Piper | Wednesday, June 5, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 PM

A bank of clouds rolled over the San Juans last night but the rain held off during today’s trip into the Salish Sea. Captain Pete, naturalist Alexandria and I headed out of the marina with our great group of guests during a very low tide! We moved north in San Juan Channel and made our way into New Channel along the north end of Spieden Island. We spotted a group of harbor seals hauled out in the Cactus Islands and since the...

Piper | Tuesday, June 4, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 PM

Just as I was gathering our guests for our trip today Captain Pete was on the radio with other whale watching boats and received a report of orcas in Canadian waters! So, we got off the docks with an awesome group of people and headed north in San Juan Channel, cutting across Spieden Channel towards the Southern Gulf Islands of Gooch and Mandarte. Arriving on scene with the Bigg’s killer whales, the mammal-eating ecotype, we...