Welcome to the Whale Report Blog

Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 09/22/19 | 12:00pm

Happy Humpback day! We saw so many humpbacks!

It all started as Captain Sarah, Naturalist Piper and I headed up through the San Juan Channel. Despite the rain, we charged onwards towards an adventurous day! We boated up President’s Channel, past Waldron Island and up towards Sucia Island. Here we saw humpback whales!

There were two humpback whales travelling and searching for food! These gorgeous animals explored the area as they swam and...

Olivia | September 22nd, 2019 | M/V Kestrel | 11:00am

We started off our Adventure Trip by heading north through Spieden Island. To our surprise, the entire island was so lush green in just a matter of one week with the amount of rain we have gotten. We looked at Mouflon Sheep for quite a bit before heading into Haro Strait to check out the body of water to see if any whales were around. After that we headed north through John’s Pass where we saw heaps of Harbor Seals floating around...

Piper | Saturday, September 21, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 PM

Captain Sarah, naturalist Olivia, and I left the docks with a really fun group today, to reports of both orcas and humpbacks swimming around the Salish Sea! We headed south down San Juan Channel, in the direction of Cattle Point Lighthouse. When we arrived in the area we stopped because there was a huge haul out of Steller’s sea lions on the small rocky outcroppings in the middle of the pass. The giant pinnipeds were...

Jordan | M/V Kestrel | 09/21/19 | 11:00am

What a really great day out on the water!

Captain Gabe and I headed south through the San Juan Channel and headed towards a beautiful lighthouse off the southern tip of San Juan: Cattle Point lighthouse.

Nearby, we stopped at Whale Rocks and watched tons of Steller sea lions! They wandered around the rocks, barked at each other and splashed in the water! It looked like they were really enjoying the beautiful sunny day!

Then, we boated out...

Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 09/20/19 | 12:00pm

What a lovely day in the San Juan Island!

Captain Sarah, Naturalist Piper and I headed out of Friday Harbor and up north through the San Juan Channel and towards the Canadian border.

We boated up President’s Channel and saw our first blow! It was a humpback whale! This huge animal swam in circles as it fed upon its tiny prey hidden in the murky depths of the Salish Sea. We followed as the whale showed us its 15-foot wide tail! What a...

Olivia | September 20th, 2019 | M/V Kestrel | 11:00am

We love our Adventure Trip on M/V Kestrel! The great thing about it? High speeds which means further distances in our time frame! We started the trip by heading south through the San Juan Channel to see some Steller’s Sea Lions bellowing their burping noises all the way across the water and swimming about in the currents around Whale Rocks. From there, Captain Gabe informed us of some black and white whales very far away past...

Olivia | September 19th, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00pm

Today was such a treat all the way around. As Captain Erick, Co-Naturalist Sarah and I started heading north through the San Juan Channel with our passengers, we stumbled upon a rare surprise just south of Flattop Island- a Northern Fur Seal! We rarely get fur seals in our waters; in fact, this was Sarah’s first time in her six years of working here and Erick has only seen them once down in the Puget Sound. After taking in the...

Jordan | M/V Kestrel | 09/19/19 | 11:00am

What an incredible day!

Captain Gabe and I took the Kestrel out into the foggy depths of the San Juan channel and up towards the north. We could hardly see the outline of Spedien Island as we approached!

We boated near the island and found hundreds of exotic animals! I’ve literally never seen so many mouflon sheep, sika deer and fallow deer all grazing together in huge herds! There were groups of huge male sika deer with antlers wandering...

Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 09/18/19 | 12:00pm

What a crazy epic day today!

Captain Gabe, Naturalist Piper and I took the Sea Lion out of Friday Harbor and headed north through the San Juan Channel. We heard reports from deep within Canadian territory, so we headed that direction. Boating above Stuart Island and crossing Boundary Pass, we crossed the border. We continued up toward Georgeson Pass, intertwining between gorgeous islands, admiring the birds flying by.

As we emerged into open...

What an adventurous tour today!

Captain Gabe, Naturalist Laura and I headed out of Friday Harbor and headed down south through the San Juan Channel. It was clear skies until we reached the southern tip of San Juan, catching a glimpse of the Cattle Point lighthouse before running straight into a wall of fog.

This fog bank was really thick as we entered the open body of water. So, I could only allude to the Olympic mountains hiding behind the clouds. We travelled southwest as we boated...