Welcome to the Whale Report Blog

[Naturalist Erick D., M/V Sea Lion, 8/17/17, 1:30PM]

The weather here in the San Juans has definitely changed for the better. A few days ago the wind shifted and blew the smoky haze away, it rained!, and the temperature cooled down again. On this beautiful, cool, and sunny day Captain Gabe, Rachel, and I all took a full boat on a search for some fun nature!

Bald Eagles

Today we took an inter-island route since there were some whale reports on the other side of the islands. We...

[Lauren Fritz, M/V Kestrel, 08/16/17, 2:00 pm Tour]

This season has been a remarkable and unusual one in terms of killer whale sightings, for sure! We've been seeing whales venture into areas they've rarely been seen before. Today, we watched the T137's explore all the way up the shoreline of East Sound on Orcas Island! I've never heard of killer whales swimming through here before, although I'm sure it has occurred - it's just rare. M/V Kestrel was able to hang out with these...

[Naturalist Erick D., M/V Kestrel, 8/9/17, 2:00PM]

On our afternoon trip for the day, Gabe and I and all the lovely folks aboard started another exciting search for some cool marine wildlife. Our first stop was one of our favorites. We motored down to Whale Rocks. These two Islets emerge from the waves of Cattle Pass just southwest of Lopez Island. You can see them from the shores of both Lopez and San Juan, and when they are covered by our favorite pinnipeds you can definitely...

[8/15/17- M/V Sea Lion- Kelsey, Naturalist- 5:30PM]

Some days, whales are juuuust out of reach from us, and that is okay! We understand that the animals we are searching for are wild, and orcas can actually swim 35 mph and travel up to 100 miles in a day! We always want to see whales, but we also have a great deal of other amazing wildlife that fills these islands in the Salish Sea that we want to share with travelers. We actually have 4 species of baleen whale, 2 species of dolphin...

[Lauren Fritz, M/V Sea Lion, 08/15/17, 1:30 pm Tour]

We saw some rare visitors from Alaska today - the T10's! These animals are most frequently seen up north, but they decided to make a surprise appearance in the Salish Sea this week. There was a female with a large nick near the base of her dorsal fin and one of her large sons, spotted cruising along the Salt Spring shoreline today. They even surprised some campers near the shoreline of one of the provincial parks on the island -...

[Naturalist Erick D., M/V Kestrel, 8/9/17, 10:00AM]

On Wednesday, Captain Gabe and I started on the search for families (matrilines) of Transient (Bigg’s) Orcas. While in the Salish Sea this summer we have not seen the Southern Resident orcas much this summer, we have seen many of the Transient (Bigg’s) Orca matrilines. The main difference between these two distinct, non-interbreeding populations that swim through the Salish Sea is their diet. The Southern Residents eat only fish...

[8/12/17- M/V Sea Lion- Kelsey, Naturalist- 1:30PM & 5:30PM]

Some days are just so perfect it doesn’t seem real. And when not one, but TWO trips turn out to be beautifully perfect, it’s a pretty surreal day!

Both trips saw some transient killer whales (or mammal-eating orcas), but there were two separate groups on the same path of travel! In the afternoon, we went south from Friday Harbor to Cattle Point, and there by Whale Rocks were some orcas! We viewed them briefly, and then we...

[Naturalist Sarah C. 8/11/17 2pm Kestrel]

There was wildlife abound today in the Salish Sea! In a lovely continuation of a trend, we've been spotting orcas fairly consistently over the past week. Today's family was especially a sight for sore eyes - called the T65A's after their matriarch (and mother of the rest of the group), this family of five are frequent visitors to the San Juans but hadn't been spotted nearby for nearly a month... before today!

We left Friday Harbor today with...

[Naturalist Erick D., M/V Sea Lion, 8/8/17, 5:30PM]

            Yesterday, Captain Pete and I embarked on a beautiful sunset cruise. It was a beautiful evening. The water as we left Friday Harbor was flat calm and almost looked unreal underneath the orange sunlight of late afternoon. We’ve been having some amazing sunsets with the smoky haze that has covered the islands for a week now. The sun sets as an orange orb each night creating an extraordinary fiery sky.

This is the sky...

[Sarah C. 8/7/17 10am and 2pm Kestrel]

Humpback whales are probably most well-known for their impressive flukes, featuring complex patterns varying from all black to all white, and everything in between. Displayed on every deep dive, humpback whale flukes are used as their main identifier in the field. Each individual has a unique pattern displayed on the underside of their tail, making for a remarkably convenient built-in tracker. Thanks, nature!

Sometimes, though, these flukes...