Lauren Tschirhart | July 8th, 2026 | M/V Kestrel | 2:00 pm
Our Wednesday Adventure Whale Watch and Wildlife Tour was filled with an abundance of different species. We got to see two different species of baleen whales, two species of pinnipeds as well as a variety of birds. Our first plan of action was to head in the direction of a humpback whale report. This humpback had been reported traveling east in Rosario Strait. A fellow Pacific Whale Watch Association (PWWA) member informed us that the whale was consistently going on three minute downtimes and traveling approximately 8 knots. This is definitely not the norm for this species. Not only is that quite a bit faster than their average cruising speed, but three minutes is a pretty short downtime as well. This was exciting news for us, as it meant lots of surface viewing time. This individual was particularly fun to watch as it was bringing its fluke out of the water on every single deep dive. This animal had been identified as BCX2473 AKA “Kiarra Kelly.” Due to photo-identification, we were able to determine that this whale makes an annual migration to the breeding and calving grounds down in Hawai’i. While we were observing this beautiful baleen whale, we also got a glimpse at some Steller’s Sea Lions hanging out on a red navigational can. We departed this humpback and headed further south in Rosario Strait. We hugged the Blakely Island shoreline, with our destination being Shoal Bight. Gray Whale CRC2702 has been hanging out off the coast of Lopez Island for over a month. When this Gray Whale first arrived in Shoal Bight, it seemed to be in poor body condition. Unfortunately Gray Whales are in the midst of a catastrophic die off event, it is estimated that their population has dropped by 50% over the past 10 years. Luckily for this individual, it hasn’t been burning much energy, considering it’s just been circling this shallow bay feeding for weeks on end. Gray whales feed on benthic invertebrates found on the sea floor and in shallow sandy banks. We watched as this whale fed, creating mud bloom after mud bloom. We waved goodbye to this whale and headed around the south end of Lopez Island. We cruised in between many picturesque small islands, like Castle Rock and Blind Island. We slowed down and listened to Black Oystercatchers, while scanning the waterways for other signs of wildlife. We continued west, looking towards the iconic Cattle Point Lighthouse. We made our way into Cattle Pass and slowed down to get looks at Whale Rocks, a major haul out site for Stellar Sea Lions. Next we made our way through seal alley a.k.a. Shark Reef and got looks at tons of harbor seals, as well as several bald eagles perched on trees that line the Lopez Island shoreline. Our tour ended with us viewing a gorgeous Great Blue Heron take flight!