Welcome to the Whale Report Blog

Captain Brian and I arrived at the docks this morning with no reports of any whales in our area. Both hopeful that we would be able to find our own animals on this rainy and gray morning, we gathered our excited guests and headed out the harbor. As soon as we left the harbor, a couple of killer whales were spotted on the East side of San Juan Islands near Cypress Island. Thankful that we had a lead, we headed that way to see who we could find. As we approached where these individuals...

Sarah | 07/01/2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 01:30pm

The sun was shining and we had flat water as Captain Mike steered the M/V Sea Lion north out of Friday Harbor towards the Canadian Gulf Islands. We had a lovely and lively group of guests on board ready to find some wildlife!

As we cruised north we stopped to check out some harbor seals hauled out on the rocks around Flattop Island. These little pinnipeds are some of our most common marine mammals in the inland sea, with some population...

Jordan | July 1, 2018 | M/V Kestrel | 2:00 trip

On this second trip of the day, we were really lucky that it stopped raining and the sun came out! Captain Mike and I were happy to hear of whales up in Canada, so we sped off north. We wound through Canadian islands until we hit Vancouver Island, then headed north along the west side of Salt Spring Island.

And then we found a pod of whales! We recognized them as the T65As! As one of my favorite pods, they have a tiny baby who is only a...

Jordan | July 1, 2018 | M/V Kestrel | 10:00 trip

 The morning was a not-so-sunny morning as the drizzling rain sprinkled across the calm waters of Friday Harbor. Captain Mike and I were excited for the day, nevertheless, and embraced the wetness with open spirits of adventure!

As we headed out, we spotted bald eagles right away! Perched high in a tree, they didn’t seem to mind the rain as they overlooked the harbor. Then Mike caught wind of some whales up in Canada! So, we decided to...

Sarah | 06/29/2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 01:30pm

Yesterday’s overcast weather yielded amazing wildlife viewing… with a bit of [much needed] rain falling from the gray skies the islands had that very specific Pacific Northwest magic swirling over them.

Leaving Friday Harbor Captain Mike, Naturalist Jordan, and I elected to head south towards some areas that we’ve had great wildlife sightings lately. Cruising through Griffin Bay we caught views of our two most common marine mammals in the...

Jordan | June 29, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30 sunset trip

What a lovely sunset tour today! Captain Mike and I set out at 5:30 from Friday Harbor with a fairly decent idea of where we could find orcas!

We received reports of a transient whale pod up in West Sound, so we headed north through the San Juan Channel towards those waters. However, as soon as we grew closer, the whales took off in the opposite direction! Luckily, we were able to catch up and we met the whales in the Upright...

Naturalist Sarah | 06/29/2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:30pm Charter from Roche Harbor

Naturalist Piper, Captain Pete and I had distinct pleasure of hosting a family reunion aboard the M/V Sea Lion. On private charters we can always customize the day to best suite a group’s needs, and yesterday that meant moving the M/V Sea Lion up to Roche Harbor for a departure! We gathered our very excited group, talked a little bit about the wildlife in the area, and then departed the harbor. We shot...

Naturalist Sarah | 06/22/2018 | M/V Kestrel | 02:00pm

M/V Kestrel is such an incredible conservation tool and education platform. Every time I am scheduled for a day working on its open air decks I’m excited about the potential for encountering a plethora of wildlife to share with our guests. On Friday it was no exception… we were able to cover a lot of ground and see more wildlife than a conventional whale watch boat in our 3-4 allotted time.

We started our afternoon cruise by...

Naturalist Sarah | 06/22/2018 | M/V Kestrel | 10:00am

What a whirlwind of a trip! Leaving Friday Harbor, Captain gabe and I had no reports of orcas… not unusual for our morning trips! Since we work with a spotting network spread out through the region, usually our sightings start rolling in as boats leave their harbors. We decided to leave our slip and head north through President’s Channel towards what we call the Outer Islands of the San Juans: Patos, Matia, and Sucia Islands...

Our 2pm trip today aboard M/V Kestrel was truly one for the books!  From the beginning I suspected that this was going to be a great day!  We had beautiful weather and a fantastic group- everyone was smiling, excited to get going, and of course even participated in the obligatory laughing at my jokes- like I said it was the Dream Team and Dream Trip from the get go….

But no one have fully prepared for what a fantastic trip it would prove to be!  As we headed out we knew that we were...