Welcome to the Whale Report Blog

The most noticeable of our transients, Mr. Floppy Fin, T-19B, was in the area with four of his compadres. These five whales appeared to be on the hunt for their most beloved found source, harbor seals. However, when a lone harbor seal surfaced close to the boat with no care in the world it was apparent that these Transients had other things on their mind- most likely sleep. These whales can travel up to 100 miles a day and are constantly themoregulating in these frigid 48 degree...

M/V Kittiwake got to spend the afternoon up close and personal with the J22s also known as the cookie clan. The matriarch J22 Oreo and her two offspring Double Stuff and Cookie, and adopted niece Rhapsody. Rhapsody was orphaned by her mother when she was just two years old and was left in the care of her grandmother, then her grandmother passed so Auntie Oreo took over and raised Rhapsody and Double stuff at the same time. Just a short story about the depth of the social connections...

We had a wonderful day on the water with some very goofy southern resident killer whales! We saw a mixture of J and K pods playing, rolling and breaching in Haro Strait. We saw a number of spyhops today as well. Killer whales have excellent eyesight, very much like our own, but they can only see about three feet above the water when they are under. In order to survey their surroundings they will spyhop, sticking their heads out of the water. We had a wonderful time enjoying the...

Today Captain Pete, Tyler and I headed out for a blustery day on Haro Strait. We headed North around San Juan Island and met up with a beautiful group of transient killer whales in the middle of the strait right on the US/Canadian border. Transients eat marine mammals (basically anything that we think is cute and cuddly) with harbor seals making up about 60% of their diet. Today we were fortunate enough to see the T37s and the T137As. We can identify individuals whales by looking at...

Yesterday we left Friday harbor with the reports of transient orcas far south.  We were taking the long trek towards where the transients were when they decided to pick up speed moving south, making them out of our reach.  At that point we decided to turn around and look for some Minke whales in salmon bank.  We got some great looks at some Minkes and even got to see one lung feeding!  We then headed over to long island and looked at a huge bald eagles nest.  On average a bald eagles...

Another magical day on the water, and this was even closer to home than usual! M/V Sea Lion motored out of Friday Harbor for a mere 10 minutes before we were greeted with the sight of blows in the distance. The blows belonged to non-other than the T-65A's, a mom and her offspring, that were combing the east side of the island for some tasty treats. It appeared that this was no problem for our marine-mammal eating orcas, since we saw a Harbor porpoise propel itself out of the water to...

Perfect, warm, and sunny day today in Friday Harbor barely even a breeze in the air. The lack of wind makes it quite warm in Friday Harbor but we knew that it meant good things for our trip. Captain Jim took us north on the Kittiwake to catch up with some whales that were also heading north in Haro Strait. We caught up with them at Kellet Bluff on Henry Island. We got reports from some of the other boats that we were viewing the entire K pod, which is 19 whales. They were very spread...

Today Captain Jim and I set out on the M/V Kittiwake with two reports of orcas: one of transients to the north, and one of residents to the south. Oftentimes we joke that deciding where to go is a like a chess match.... the whales will make one move and then we have to respond. We are a member of the Pacific Whale Watch Association, so we are in constant communication with other captains on the water getting the most current information about the whale's movement, which aids in...

The fog cleared around 1pm, which was perfect for our 1:30pm departure on M/V Sea lion leaving Friday Harbor. We headed south because we had reports of whales near False Bay.  By the time we caught up with the whales they were passed Lime Kiln on the west side of San Juan Island. We had a great afternoon watching K pod fully intact, and traveling close together. It was awesome to see 19 whales so close together and they even gave us a close swim by and checked out the guests onboard...

Yesterday afternoon we left Friday harbor and headed south towards reports of whales on the South side of San Juan Island.  On our way down to that area we stopped to look at some huge stellar sea lions.  Did you know that male stellar sea lions get up to 2,000 pounds?  Once we got a good look at those sea lions we headed around the south side of San Juan Island and came across the J2's.  The J2's are Granny's family and all of her living descendants.  The group includes J2 (Granny)...