Welcome to the Whale Report Blog

Captain Mike, Rachel, and I boarded the M/V Sea Lion today with a great group of guests! Today there was a report of some Bigg’s killer whales just outside of Friday Harbor so as we boated into the sunny San Juan Channel, we headed north. Along the way, we came across a bald eagle’s nest, occupied by an adult and a juvenile which were peering down onto the shores of their island at a group of harbor seals which had made themselves comfortable on the low-lying rocks. We carried on and...

Captain Pete and I were on our second trip of the day ready to be out on the water during the golden hour and hopefully encounter some animals! With very excited guests, we headed up North to see if we could find the same orcas we were with during our day trip. Apparently, these guys were covering lots of ground and moving North quick. We were worried that they would get away from us but decided to go up that way regardless. We were hopeful that we would get a good look at them...

Captain Pete, naturalist Alexandria and I were ready for our day trip on a beautiful and sunny Tuesday. With almost a full boat, the guests and us were ready to see some whales! Captain Gabe had reports of Transient Orcas up near the Gulf Islands in Canada and headed towards us. This group had apparently cruised by Friday Harbor and up the San Juan Channel earlier that morning. It would take us about an hour to get up there, so we headed up the channel with no time to lose. How much...

Jordan | June 22, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 noon

What an amazing day out on the water! Captain Mike, Naturalist Rachel and I voyaged out of Friday Harbor towards a report of whales traveling along the east side of Lopez Island. We traveled north up the Upright channel where we saw two bald eagles perching in trees near their giant nest! It was very cool to see this pair, mated for life, nestled within the huge trees that they called home.

We then traveled down the east side of...

Jordan | June 21, 2018 | M/V Kestrel | 2:00

The day boasted a brilliant sunshine but also a bombardment of wind. And with wind comes waves which made today quite the adventure! Captain Mike took our boat up north through the San Juan Channel to Boundary Pass in between Waldron and Stuart islands.  

Off of Turn Point on Stuart we found a group of Bigg’s orca whales! In fact, we caught these T65As amidst a hunting session! Diving erratically and swimming all around through the huge...

Those aboard M/V Sea Lion today were treated to an incredible day!  This time of year we are lucky enough to frequently see orcas on our trips, but whenever we are out on the water and are treated to orcas it is truly an amazing trip!

When we headed out, Captain Pete was optimistic with reports that we had heard in the area, so we all headed out of Friday Harbor and south in San Juan Channel.  We were treated to some gorgeous views of Cattle Point Lighthouse on the southern tip of...

Jordan | June 20, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30 sunset

Captain Pete, Alexandria and I journeyed out of Friday Harbor for the 5:30 sunset tour on our quest to find the whales! The M/V Sea Lion headed north up the San Juan Channel, through the Spieden Channel to the West coast of Henry Island.

Here we found a group of Southern Resident orca whales! In fact, J pod was having a wonderful time scanning the shoreline for their salmon. We watched the whales jump and spy hop and slap the water...

Today we left Friday Harbor with no reports of whales in the area, which is not an uncommon way to start our day.  Just as we were exiting the harbor we got a report of some transient orcas about 10 minutes away from us.  We came across the T137’s hunting what looked to be like a porpoise.  Things were just getting exciting as we got there with lots of white water and jumping going on.  We then watched the orcas slowly begin to share their food and travel northwest.  We watched as...

It was humpback whales galore today near Friday Harbor.  We saw one humpback whale just outside of the harbor in San Juan Channel.  We then decided to head south and stop to see some harbor seals and Steller’s sea lions at whale rocks.  Steller’s spend their summers on the coast and up in Alaska for their breeding season, but this time of year we still see some juveniles that like to hang around.  We then got another report of a second humpback whale a little further south of San...

Waking up to a windy forest and a text about how windy it would be out on the channel today, I had no high expectations for whale watching. I arrived at the dock and knew we probably weren’t going to make it to the West side of the island The Resident Killer whales were spotted there last but due to the unsheltered waters it would be too rough for us to get there. Instead, I spoke with Captain Gabe and he had other orcas in mind, a Transient pod was just a short drive out of the...