Welcome to the Whale Report Blog

[Sarah – 05/26/2018 – M/V Kestrel – 10:00am]

I love starting my mornings with a piping hot cup of coffee and looking at early whale reports. Sipping on my stiff mug of black coffee, I knew we were in for a treat on our morning trip on M/V Kestrel from Friday Harbor. One of my very favorite families of killer whales was in the area, and pretty close!

Captain Mike and I loaded up our group of enthusiastic guests and headed south out of the mouth of the harbor, looking for wildlife. We...

[Naturalist Sarah – 06/12/2018 – M/V Kestrel – 10:00am]

The whale watching has been great lately! We are entering what local naturalists are calling the “new normal.” The diversity of our ecosystem is shifting, and we are seeing that reflected most notably in our local orca populations. With a drop in our local salmon population we are seeing less and less of our Southern Resident killer whales in our inland waterways. Traditionally we expect to see members of J, K & L Pods from...

[Naturalist Sarah – 06/11/2018 – M/V Sea Lion – 12:00pm]

Monday was just another day that put a smile on my face that stayed through dinner. After a long absence from the inland waters we enjoyed a delightful encounter with members of our Southern Resident killer whale population.

Today Captain Pete, Naturalist Jordan, and I departed Friday Harbor with a boatful of curious and excited guests! Right off the bat, as we turned left and headed north out of the harbor, we got some...

June 10, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30 Sunset 

Today the 5:30 sunset tour hosted a small group of enthusiastic whale lovers! Captain Pete and I heard reports of orcas heading north along the east side of San Juan Island so we decided to head around the north end of the island and down the east side to meet them.

As we neared Lime Kiln, the first spouts were detected! Eventually we realized that multiple groups were swimming around the boat: the T86s, T100s and T101s. These beautiful...

June 09, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 Noon 

What a fantastic trip we had today! The weather was super cooperative and shone sunlight on our entire journey. Captain Gabe, Mariana and I were all very excited to start the day and set off on the voyage to find whales.

Coming out of Friday Harbor for the 12:00 trip, we headed south towards Cattle Pass. As we boated through Griffin Bay and neared Cattle Point (the southern point of San Juan), we spotted the orca whales! Multiple groups of...

[Sunday, 6/10/18 - M/V Sea Lion - Noon - Naturalist Erick]

On Sunday, Captain Pete, myself, and one of the new Naturalists, Jordan, left with a super group aboard M/V Sea Lion to search the Salish Sea for all it’s wonderful critters. First, we made our way towards the outer islands of the San Juan archipelago. These Islands are where the U.S. and Canada border is located and are more sparsely populated then the four main islands a little bit south. Just north of PAtos Island with...

[Saturday, 6/9/18 - M/V Kestrel - 2:00PM - Naturalist Erick]

On Saturday we headed out for another wonderful wildlife filled trip in the San Juan Islands. Captain Mike and I took a lovely group of folks out on M/V Kestrel into the bright, sunny, and calm day. We went south along the Shaw Island shoreline and took an inter-island route to near Obstruction Island. As you pause and san the horizon here it looks like you’re trapped in between Orcas, Shaw, Lopez, and Blakely Islands...

[Thursday, 6/7/18 - M/V Sea Lion - 12:00 - Naturalist Erick] T100’s

On Thursday we got a little break in what locals call our “June-uary” weather. After a sunny warm stint in May, June often comes here and reminds us that it is still spring. Captain Mike, myself, and one of our brand new Naturalists, Mariana, took a great group of folks out to look for more fun springtime wildlife! We headed up north in between the outer islands of the San Juan Archipelago. We made our first stop...

[Monday, 6/4/18 - M/V Kestrel - 2:00PM - Naturalist Erick]

On Monday, Captain Gabe and I took M/V Kestrel with a smaller group of folks out to look for amazing wildlife out in the Salish Sea. We headed south down San Juan Channel. We made our first stop at Whale Rocks situated at the entrance to San Juan Channel This entrance called Cattle Pass is a very small channel with a lot of shallow areas so as the tide moves in and out the currents rip through here often causing white water...

Tuesday, June 5, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 Noon

When we left the dock today there were no reports for orcas in the Salish Sea, so our plan was to head north toward Boundary Pass to see what we could find, but just as we rounded Point Caution to the north of our little town, the radio sounded off with great news! A group of Bigg’s killer whales had been sighted south of Lopez Island! Captain Gabe, naturalists Rachel, Mariana, and myself turned the boat around and headed south...