Welcome to the Whale Report Blog

Jordan | M/V Kittiwake | 08/30/19 | 3:00pm

What a lovely day! Captain Gabe and I sped down through the San Juan Channel, out of Friday Harbor, and past Cattle Point lighthouse, towards the open waters of hope.

The sun had finally come out and the water looked dazzling as it shimmered in the sunlight. We boated and boated following the coast of San Juan and further out towards the Olympic Peninsula.

Then, we found orcas! But, not just any orcas, the southern resident orca whales! This...

Piper | Friday, August 30, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30 AM

The day started out very foggy but as the sun rose higher the fog burned off and cloudy blue skies prevailed! We had reports of Southern Resident killer whales near False Bay on the west side of San Juan Island, so Captain Erick, Naturalist Laura, and I headed south through San Juan Channel with our awesome group of folks. Just as we left the marina and got to Turn Island we spotted some harbor porpoises surfacing in the strong...

Jordan | M/V Kittiwake | 08/30/19 | 11:00am

What a fantastic day out on the water! Captain Gabe and I took the Kittiwake and 10 of our new best friends out of Friday Harbor and south towards hopeful reports of whales.

We knew it was cloudy but wow, once we reached Cattle Point, it turned into one giant wall of fog! We could barely see anything! I was pretty amazed by the odd phenomenon as we boated slowly and avoided other boats on our radar. Then, we burst through the fog into the...

Olivia | August 29th, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30pm

Today was such a breezy day on the water, both literally and figuratively. We started off by [barely] traveling south to find Bigg’s Killer Whales near Pear Point. From there, they turned north and were able to view them all the way back to Friday Harbor. As soon as we found them, we also saw Harbor Porpoises that were frantically fleeing the other way, including a full leap out of the water which is rare for porpoises.  This...

Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 08/28/19 | 1:30pm

What a great trip!

Captain Pete, Naturalist Laura and I headed out of Friday Harbor and south down through the San Juan Channel and out into open waters. We passed by Cattle Point lighthouse and towards the Olympic Peninsula, scanning the glassy water for any signs of whales.

We passed by harbor porpoises bursting through the water with their tiny fins and swarms of sea birds everywhere!

Suddenly, Captain Pete caught word of some whale...

M/V Sea Lion | August 27th, 2019 | 1:30 PM | Naturalist Alexandria

Today we started off our trip with no firm reports.  There was a rumor of a humpback whale that was out fairly far south, but we didn’t have any reports of orcas within our range.  We decided to head out of the harbor but within a few moments of exiting the harbor we were excited to catch wind of a family of transient orcas fairly far up north.

We decided to make the trek and hope that these orcas didn’t swim too far...

Olivia | August 26th, 2019 | M/V Kittiwake | 3:00pm

This afternoon, Captain Gabe, our 10 passengers, and I set out on M/V Kittiwake to find whales that were close by! Leaving Friday Harbor, we immediately found a large bait ball that is always a good sign of marine mammals in the area. We headed south down San Juan Channel and found the same family group of Bigg’s Killer Whales from this morning- the T99’s- between Griffin Bay and Cattle Point. They were swimming southwest pointed...

M/V Sea Lion | August 26, 2019 | 1:30 PM | Naturalist Alexandria

What a fantastic day we had on the water!  When we started out our trip we had reports of orcas in Cattle Pass.  As we loaded the boat and left the harbor we made a right hand turn in San Juan Channel taking us south towards this sighting. 

By the time we reached these animals they had worked their way north towards us so we were able to meet up with them in San Juan Channel right off of Lopez Island.  As we approached...

Olivia | August 26th, 2019 | M/V Kestrel | 11:00am

What a fun morning on the water! Captain Gabe received reports of several whales nearby, so we set out south through San Juan Channel. With our whales just south of Lopez Island, we decided to stop at Whale Rocks and check out the largest sea lions in the world- Steller’s Sea Lions! There were heaps of them bellowing over the water, swimming along the shoreline of this mini island, and snoozing in the sunshine. We also acquired some...

Erin | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30PM | Sunday, August 25, 2019

What a lovely afternoon in the Salish Sea! We left the harbor with the knowledge that there was a pod of Bigg's killer whales fairly closeby to us! We headed in their general direction, searching for other wildlife along the way! We went to the southern shoreline of Spieden Island, and we almost immediately saw some wildlife! We first spotted some mouflon sheep, which are a non-native animal to the island. They were brought to...