Welcome to the Whale Report Blog

Logan Stecker | M/V Kestrel | August 9th 2025 | 2:00 pm

Great viewing out on the water today! Our groups had a great time in between stops competing to find harbor porpoise swimming along us which was fun. We also go to see a lot of seals hauled out on Sentinel rocks which was great foreshadowing to the seal hunting by killer whales out by Sidney spit.

This groups of three orcas we got to watch were the T019s—a mother (Nootka) and two very large adult sons (Galiano and Spouter). After getting to...

Logan Stecker | M/V Kestrel | August 9th 2025 | 10:00 am

We began our search southward, descending into deep and mysterious fog. What were we to discover on our adventure today… 

The most beautiful sea lion viewing I have been to may be this trip. Shrouded in fog and hearing ominous loud growls and barks from these large creatures was incredibly entertaining and gave me goosebumps. We got to see them fighting along the rock tops as their background was abrupt dense fog. It was intense and...

Olivia Ellman | M/V Kestrel | Friday August 8th 2025 | 10:00 am

This morning was already very exciting as we left the dock knowing there were some iconic whales not too far away up San Juan Channel. We’ve seen the T18s over the last couple days, including yesterday when they were traveling with another family. Today it was just the three of them, and once we neared President’s Channel we easily began to see the tall dorsal fins of the two boys traveling a bit behind their mom. While I’m always...

Olivia Ellman | M/V Osprey | Thursday August 7th, 2025 | 12:30 pm

Today was such a fun day as we spent the afternoon with a socializing group of two very different Bigg’s Killer Whale matrilines! When we left the harbor, we heard reports of killer whales near Victoria so we began heading south. We stopped by Goose Island to see lots of harbor seals resting on the shoreline, and then continued through Cattle Pass. At this point, the whales had been traveling steadily east across the Haro Strait so...

Lauren | M/V Osprey | Sunday, August 3rd, 2025 | 12:30 PM

Today we went the distance. We ventured just about as far as we can during a 4 hour Classic Whale Watch and Wildlife tour. The T065A’s had been picked up in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and they were trending southeast, which was not great news for us. If they continued on that trend they would’ve been out of rour each. We were pretty convinced we weren’t gonna see them as the T065A’s have been spending most of their summer down in Puget...

Olivia Ellman | M/V Osprey | Wednesday August 6th, 2025 | 12:30 pm

There were multiple reports of whales when we left the harbor, but all of them were equally far away so we weren’t quite sure if we would be able to make it if they decided to travel the opposite direction. Captain Vaun decided to go for Victoria, BC for our best chance at finding killer whales, so we began heading south. As we passed by Cattle Point, we got to see some harbor seals and many cormorants on Goose Island before...

Olivia Ellman | M/V Kestrel | Tuesday August 5th 2025 | 2:00 pm

When we left on our afternoon tour, we weren’t quite sure that we would be able to reach the whale reports. While every hour is different on the water and there’s always a chance of finding whales on our own, we were still hoping to catch up with one of the reports that other boats were updating us on. We left the harbor and headed south towards the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and pointed towards a report of Bigg’s Killer Whales that...

Lauren | M/V Sea Lion | Friday, August 1st, 2025 | 5:30 PM

Sunset tours are my absolute favorite. There’s just something about the beauty of golden hour that can’t be beat. Today had been a rough one for the fleet, with very few whale reports in the region. The reports that did come in were mostly out of range for the Friday Harbor boats, but as we know with whale watching, things can change in an instant. Right before boarding the M/V Sea Lion we got word that the first killer whales of the day...

Logan Stecker | M/V Kestrel | August 4th 2025 | 2:00 pm

 What an amazing adventure today! Some great orca behavior was watched and some surprise wildlife popped up out of nowhere.

We started our day going straight over to Cypress Island to look for reported whales. We found a group of 3, including 2 large males, identified to be the T019s. Having not seen this group in the area for multiple months, this was quite exciting! We followed them around the island as they stayed close to shore...

Kelly | M/V Osprey | Monday, August 4th 2025 | 2 PM

We made our way swiftly across San Juan Channel and into Presidents Channel aboard the M/V Osprey. We had a confirmed whale sighting reported by a member of the Pacific Whale Watch Association (PWWA) toward the east. As we made our way past the Lopez ferry terminal and into the heart of the San Juan's, we spotted many jumping pink salmon! We know that pink salmon runs here every other year, but this is a particularly abundant season. Nearly...