Welcome to the Whale Report Blog

Piper | Tuesday, August 13, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30 PM

The M/V Sea Lion left the docks in Friday Harbor today carrying some lovely guests along with Captain Pete, Erin, and myself! We left the marina and headed south through San Juan Channel to meet up with a group of Bigg’s orcas that were traveling south near Admiralty Inlet. This group of killer whales were marine mammal-eating and they consisted of many generations of the same family tree, broken up into two pods of five...

Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 08/12/19 | 5:30pm

What a lovely trip!

Captain Pete and I headed out of Friday Harbor and towards hopeful reports of whales! We booked it down south through the San Juan Channel, past a beautiful lighthouse off of Cattle Point and into the open waters. We boated west towards Canadian waters. We reached Vancouver Island and neared Victoria. We came pretty close to land before we found orca whales!

Here we found a pod of four whales who I absolutely love...

Laura C. | M/V Kestrel | 8/12/2019 | 11:00am

Today was such a wonderful day out on the water!  M/V Kestrel headed to Flattop Island for our first stop to appreciate the diverse wildlife in the area!  There, we found some harbor porpoises, harbor seals and bald eagles!  A harbor seal was making a lot of noise and vocalizations as a large congregation of animals basked along the rocks.  It is weaning season for a lot of youngsters and some may be calling out for their mothers, as they...

Erin | M/V Sea Lion | Sunday, August 11, 2019 | 5:30 PM 

It was a lovely evening in the Salish Sea. We began our trip not knowing which direction we wanted to head. There were whales either very southeast of us or far northwest of us. Captain Erick decided to head in the northwest direction, where there was a report of a lone killer whale. We headed up the San Juan Channel, which was quite calm. We were able to see harbor porpoises popping up around us throughout the channel. They...

Jordan | M/V Kestrel | 08/11/19 | 3:00pm

What an amazing trip!

Captain Gabe and I set out of Friday Harbor and headed north through the San Juan Channel. We boated around the eastern tip of Speiden and towards the Cactus Islands. Here we found a bald eagle!

The eagle was devouring a huge salmon on the rocks close to the water. It was really cool watching him tear pieces away and you could literally hear him eating! But then things got interesting! Another bald eagle swooped in to...

Piper | Sunday, August 11, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30 PM

On this lovely Sunday afternoon, Captain Erick, naturalist Erin, and myself headed out into the Salish Sea with an awesome group of guests to see what sorts of critters were hanging out in the area. We left the docks of Friday Harbor and headed north in San Juan Channel.

There was a report of a lone Bigg’s killer whale that had first been spotted to the east, between Blakely and Decatur Islands but had booked it northwest and...

Erin | M/V Kestrel | Saturday, August 10, 2019 | 11:00 AM 

The rain didn't stop our wildlife sightings this morning! We left Friday Harbor with no firm whale reports, so we decided to head south to see if we could find anything for ourselves. We stopped past a neat place called Whale Rocks. All around us we could see evidence of upwelling, and there was even a baitball nearby! A baitball is when birds are gathered at the surface of the water because of the presence of baitfish...

Jordan | M/V Kestrel | 08/11/19 | 11:00am

Today was so fun!

We got incredibly lucky as Captain Gabe and I headed out of Friday Harbor and basically found a whale immediately!

We first spotted a bald eagle up in the trees near the harbor! We stopped to check him out and watch him perched up in a tree, scanning his surroundings for any fish!

Then, we joined our whale! We identified him as T65A2 swimming by himself up the east side of San Juan! And he was booking it. Swimming super fast...

M/V Sea Lion | Naturalist Alexandria | Saturday, August 10th

What a grayyyyy-t day we had today.  We boarded onto the boat and started our trek out of Friday harbor.  Within a few minutes we received a report of a gray whale spotted of Whidbey Island.  We headed south down San Juan Channel and stopped after making it through Cattle Pass to check out some Steller Sea Lions that have just returned to the area after spending their summer up in Alaska.

After spending a fun time watching...

Piper | Friday, August 9, 2019 | M/V Kestrel | 3:00 PM

This afternoon Captain Gabe and I took a lovely group of guests out on the Kestrel for an epic trip down to Admiralty Inlet, at the very top of Puget Sound. We left the marina and headed south into San Juan Channel. This channel opens up to the Strait of Juan de Fuca at Cattle Pass, where a haul out of Steller’s sea lions and harbor seals were soaking up the sun.

We looked on as a giant bull pulled himself out of the icy waters...