Welcome to the Whale Report Blog

Olivia | M/V Kestrel | August 1st, 2020 | 14:00

Today was easily in my Top 5 of Bigg’s Killer Whale experiences. Captain Brian and I knew there were two family groups of transient orca down between Whidbey and Camano Islands. However, we also knew there were Humpback Whales in north Rosario Strait. The dilemma? We REALLY wanted to see orca. Here were our options; 1) Go see Humpback Whales in North Rosario that have coverage by the PWWA, or 2) Go find these transient orca that had no...

Erick | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 | July 30, 2020

Today was another beautiful, sunny day here in the San Juan Islands. Captain Pete and I left the dock with some great guests in search of the marine wildlife here. We started by heading south towards Cattle Pass. We made our first stop at Turn Rocks just off of Turn Island. Here there were quite a few Pacific Harbor Seals and some pups basking in the beautiful sun. Many of them were holding their ‘banana poses’ where they hold their head...

M/V Sea Lion | Naturalist Alexandria | Thursday, July 30th

Today was a really cool day on M/V Sea Lion!  We headed down to Hein Bank today to search for wild life!  As we got on scene we noticed quite a few bait balls that we stopped to check out, we knew this was a good sign!  Anytime we see bait balls we know that it is worth slowing down and investigating further, sometimes it can be something like a sea lion or a harbor porpoise, but sometimes it can also be what clues us in...

Erick | M/V Sea Hawk | 12:00 | Wednesday, July 23, 2020

Today, we had a trip on M/V Sea Hawk out of Roche Harbor. I love taking Sea Hawk out. She has a great viewing platform from the bow, where you are raised a little off the water but not too much, so you feel like you are a little more part of what is happening in the water around you. She also started her life as a salmon fishing boat in Puget Sound and has switched over to ecotourism as her fun retirement job. Wyatt and I took...

Olivia | M/V Kestrel | July 29th, 2020 | 14:00

We started off our Wednesday Adventure Trip by setting out on a scan through our Salish Sea waters. Being part of the Pacific Whale Watch Association, we are involved in a community that holds no secrets. That means, everyone involved in the PWWA divides and covers as many corners of the Salish Sea as possible and reports in what whales or other crazy wildlife has been spotted. This not only helps our guests view cetaceans, but also...

Olivia | M/V Sea Lion | July 28th, 2020 | 17:30

We started off the trip by heading south into the Strait of Juan de Fuca in search of the same Bigg’s Killer Whales we saw on our 13:30 trip. We knew they were heading south but currently no one in the PWWA was on scene with them, making it more of an adventure to find them. Our M/V Sea Lion as well as a couple other whale watching vessels out of Friday Harbor divided along the strait scanning and working together to provide our guests...

Olivia | M/V Sea Lion | July 28th, 2020 | 13:30

It was a great start to our 13:30 trip since there were Transient Orca in the San Juan Channel! These Bigg’s Killer Whales were the family groups of T137’s and T65A’s, around 11 individuals. We initially found them in Upright Channel and were able to view them as they traveled south past Turn Island. It was great seeing the Transient Orca in our waters once again, as they slipped away while the Southern Resident Killer Whales were...

Olivia | M/V Kestrel | July 26th, 2020 | 14:00

After having an exciting morning trip, we were already enthused for our afternoon adventure! We immediately went south towards Whale Rocks in hopes to see the Steller’s Sea Lions to which they greeted us with lots of water wrestling and face biting! Seeing the world’s largest Sea Lions brawling in our waters was exhilarating.

As we are watching Steller’s Sea Lions, we found the same Minke Whale in the channel that we saw on our trip back...

Olivia | M/V Kestrel July 26th, 2020 | 10:00

On our morning adventure trip out into the islands, we first decided to stop at Whale Rocks to view about five Steller’s Sea Lions (!!) and many Harbor Seals. It is extra exciting to be seeing Steller’s Sea Lions this time of year because they migrate to Alaska during the summer months and return here for the winter. The fact that we had five belching, bellowing, and face biting in the water already started the trip with excitement.

We...

Olivia | M/V Sea Lion | July 25th, 2020 | 17:30

After seeing part of L-Pod foraging in the Strait of Juan de Fuca on our 13:30 trip, we hoped for our sunset trip that they would still be foraging down there to give our guests the same opportunity to see Southern Resident Killer Whales as we did earlier. To our humble surprise, those Orca started traveling UP the San Juan Channel! What!! I had never heard of this behavior historically and immediately our hearts were racing with...