Lauren | M/V Sea Lion | October 26, 2024 | 12:30 pm

With only two trips left in our 2024 season, I could not have been more delighted when I woke up to an alert that one of my favorite Bigg’s Killer Whale families was in the region. The T049A’s were picked up near Victoria and were trending northeast across the Haro Strait. The T049A’s are local legends and one of the families we’ve encountered most this season, so I was excited to get the chance to wish them a safe and prosperous winter. 

By the...

Lauren | M/V Sea Lion | October 25, 2024 | 12:30 pm

One of my favorite things about San Juan Island at this time of year is the crisp fall air and the occasional crystal-clear skies. Yesterday was one of those days, where even Mount Rainer was shining as far as the eye could see. The morning whale reports were abundant… everywhere BUT in the inland waters around Friday Harbor. Captain Eric and I prepared the M/V Sea Lion for our long voyage ahead and set sail. We took a right out of Friday Harbor...

Lauren | M/V Sea Lion | October 13, 2024 | 12:30 pm

October weather can be tricky out here in the Salish Sea. Luckily for our Classic Whale Watch & Wildlife Tour last Sunday, we were granted calm seas and sunny skies. Although the elements can sometimes prove tricky, Fall is a spectacular time to come whale watching in the San Juan Islands. Not only do we still regularly see killer whales, but we start to get a massive influx of migrating humpbacks as well. By October, most of the humpback whales...

Olivia Esqueda | M/V Sea Lion | September 25th, 2024 | 12:30pm

We are loving these fall days out on the water. Not only can we see the wildlife that spend the summer months here still hanging around, but we are also starting to see a return of the wildlife that will spend the winter months in these waters. These transitional phases bring in a broader biodiversity within the Salish Sea, making the shoulder seasons some of our favorite times of year to get out on the water. 

Today we felt lucky to...

Lauren Tschirhart | M/V Sea Lion | September 22nd, 2024 | 12:30pm

Captain Vaun and I were eager to start our tour today, with reports of a giant T-Party forming north of Mayne Island in the Strait of Georgia. The only problem… Would these whales stay in our range? We raced out of Friday Harbor and headed north into San Juan Channel. With no time for wildlife stops along the way, we headed right for Active Pass. After transiting over an hour and a half we finally made our way into the Strait of...

Lauren | M/V Kestrel | September 18th, 2024 | 2:00 pm

Our 2:00 pm Kestrel tour was a perfectly well-rounded wildlife tour. We often see different species of whales and wildlife out on the water, but to see as much as we did today is rare. We saw species from three of the five major categories of marine mammals: cetaceans, pinnipeds and even a mustelid! We started our tour by heading south in San Juan Channel. Our first stop was to search the kelp bed off Turn Island for a rumored sea otter. Sea...

Lauren | M/V Sea Lion | September 14th, 2024 | 12:30 pm

Our Sunday trip aboard the M/V Sea Lion took us about as far as we can go during a 3-to-4-hour whale watching tour out of Friday Harbor. The only whales we knew of were slowly exiting the Puget Sound, heading north-west out of Admiralty Inlet. Captain Gabe and I hoped for the best and headed south in San Juan Channel. We stopped at Goose Island to look at some Double-Crested Cormorant nests and some hauled our harbor seals. We cruised...

Maxx | M/V Kestrel | September 8th 2024 | 2:00pm

The T018s and T049s are the most frequent of flyers this summer, hands down. 

T019 “Nootkah” is a mother assumed to be born sometime before 1965. She travels with her sons, 29 year old T019B “Galiano” and T019C “Spouter,” born in 2001. 

They traveled with the T049As, led by mom “Nan” and accompanied by four of her youngest kids T049A3 “Nat,” A4 “Neptune,” A5 “Nebula,” and A6, little “Charlie II.”

The took long dives initially, surfacing in unison for...

September has arrived, and with it the chaos of busy Labor Day weekend. I was delighted to hear that the Salish Sea was matching the hustle and bustle energy of downtown Friday Harbor. Before leaving the dock, we knew of several whale reports in the region. M/V Osprey departed Friday Harbor and went north in San Juan Channel. We went to follow up on a report of Bigg’s Killer Whales that were heading southwest in Presidents Channel. Normally when we encounter our marine mammal eating killer...

Lauren | M/V Kestrel | August 30th, 2024 | 10:00am

As many of our 10:00 am Kestrel tours start, we left the dock without a firm report of whales. Luckily, we are a part of the Pacific Whale Watch Association (PWWA), which is a private sightings network that includes professional whale watchers, researchers and biologists. In the morning, PWWA members will divide and conquer the different water ways and report our sightings. None of the whales we see out here are tagged, and we don’t use any kind...