Welcome to the Whale Report Blog

Piper | Thursday, May 23, 2019 | M/V Kestrel | 12:00 PM

The M/V Kestrel left the docks of Friday Harbor today at noon with me, an awesome group of guests, and the wonderful Captain Gabe. We headed north into San Juan Channel and before we could even get to speed, we spotted a bald eagle perched in some trees on Point Caution! Watching this eagle scan the waters of the channel was a great start to the trip! We picked up the pace and made it to the Wasp Islands where we came across a...

Piper | Wednesday, May 22, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 PM

This lovely Wednesday morning the M/V Sea Lion was crewed by Captain Gabe and I, and we carried a great group of people north into San Juan Channel to scan the waters for whales. We made our way into Boundary Pass and across the border into Canadian waters where a report of humpback whales came through! We arrived at Saturna Island and Java Islets and we spotted the blows of two humpbacks surfacing next to each other! We...

Erick | Tuesday, May 21, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00

Tuesday was another beautiful day out here in the archipelago. We headed out of Friday Harbor and turned north. We headed towards Spieden Island. Just around Yellow Island we saw a Minke Whale! These are smaller baleen whales that inhabitat the Salish Sea. They are around 30 feet long and are usually difficult ot watch but today was so calm it was easy to see this one. Minke Whales, also unusually, seem to stick to the same areas...

Erin | Monday, May 20, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 p.m.

Today was incredible. It began with some sightings of harbor seals as we departed from Friday Harbor. They were swimming through the water as we cruised past them. We travelled north toward President Channel, and we saw some harbor porpoises and harbor seals along the way. Everybody became quite good at spotting harbor porpoises as the trip went on. Their small, chocolate chip-shaped dorsal fins became stars of the show at...

Erick | Sunday, May 19, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30PM

On our second trip this Sunday, Captain Gabe and I took our lovely group of folks north through San Juan Channel and towards Boundary Pass. We made our first stop at Green Point on Spieden Island. Here there were a few Steller Sea Lions enjoying the warm rocks of the late afternoon. Up on hillside there was a herd of Mouflon Sheep grazing as well. These are sheep that were brought here to be part of an exotic game hunting ranch...

Erick | Sunday, May 19, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00

What a beautiful sunny day to start the week with! Captain Pete and I headed out with a full group to go find the amazing creatures that are our neighbors in the Salish Sea. We started north through San Juan Channel and made our first stop at Green Point on Spieden Island. Here we saw a few adult male Steller Sea Lions just emerging from the water to take a rest on the rocky shoreline. Soon these furry giants will all go north for...

M/V Kestrel |Saturday, May 19th | Naturalist Alexandria | 11:00 AM

Today was an awesome day!  When we started our trip we didn’t have any firm reports to work off of, but we knew we were one of the first boats hitting the water so we were optimistic!  Captain Gabe and myself decided to head north up through San Juan Channel.   This ended up being a great call, because as we started heading up Captain Gabe got word on the radio that there were some big black and white things that had...

M/V Sea Lion | Friday, May 18th | Naturalist Alexandria | 2:00 PM

What a great day we had today!  As we were heading out of harbor we decided we were going to head south and see what we could find.  When we hit the water with no firm reports, all the captains are in constant communication with each other, and work together to decide where each boat is heading, all in an effort to ensure that we scan as many areas as possible looking for whales and wildlife.

We decided to head south...

Piper | Saturday, May 18, 2019 | M/V Kestrel | 11:00 AM

Today was another beautiful sunny day in the San Juan Islands and we took full advantage of it with reports of rain the next few days. We had a nice full boat aboard Kestrel today and left the dock heading north in San Juan Channel. Our first stop was a couple Steller sea lions hanging out on Green Point on Spieden Island. These two stragglers looked to be the last of the Green Point colony remaining in the Salish Sea. We expect...

Alexandria | Thursday, May 17, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 PM

We all boarded M/V Sea Lion and pushed off the dock, happy to see that the afternoon had cleared up and the threat of rain was no longer something people were worried about. As we got off the dock we headed out into San Juan Channel and then over to Rosario Strait. 

Captain Pete was in constant communication with all the other captains on the water, and we were all working together to scout the area.  We each chose a...