Lauren | M/V Osprey | Thursday, June 26th, 2025 | 12:30 PM

Our first stop today on our Classic Whale Watch and Wildlife tour was to Goose Island, to observe a slew of harbor seals and several different bird species. Today we had an insanely low tide, -3.1 to be exact. We have a massive tidal flux here in the San Juans, at times up to 13 feet! This means that at different times of day there is actually a different amount of islands that make up the Archipelago. At low tide, there are 743 island...

Olivia Ellman | M/V Kestrel | June 27th, 2025 | 2:00 pm

Our afternoon adventure trip could not have gone more perfectly if we tried! We set out of Friday Harbor already having whale sightings close by, so we zoomed up San Juan Channel and soon found ourselves with a Humpback Whale in Spieden Channel! This individual was slowly traveling east not far from shore, and we enjoyed some beautiful looks at the surface and a few fluking dives. This sighting was the perfect start to our trip as our...

Lauren | M/V Kestrel | Saturday, June 21st, 2025 | 2:00 PM

The Coastal Bigg’s population is estimated to have around 380 to 400 individuals. Of these individuals, we see about 150 of them pretty frequently in the inter-islands of the Salish Sea. The rest of the population spends most of their time in southeast Alaska or on the west coast of Vancouver Island. As time goes on, some families change up their habits and will start frequenting different regions. My first season working with San Juan...

Lauren | M/V Osprey | Thursday, June 19th, 2025 | 12:30 PM

Although Bigg’s Killer Whales usually just travel in their individual matrilines (mom and immediate offspring). We will occasionally see multiple groups gathering together for mating and socialization. These groupings can last a few hours, a few days, and sometimes even a few weeks. For the last several days, the T065B’s and the T075B’s have been seen traveling together. These two moms, who are both in their early 30’s have been traveling...

Lauren | M/V Osprey | Saturday, June 7th, 2025 | 12:30 PM

Today I had one of the most rewarding days of my career. I got to finally meet one of the whales I got to nickname! Each whale in the Coastal Biggs population gets an alphanumeric designation, along with a nickname. For the alphanumeric designation, each family gets a number and then it goes back-and-forth between letter and number based on lineage. For example, in this family of whales, the matriarch's designation is T036B. Which means...

Olivia Esqueda | Monday, June 2nd | M/V Osprey | 2:00pm 

Wow. This was a truly incredible day out on the water, and definitely one of my favorites all season! We started the trip by heading south through San Juan Channel, passing Goose Island with all the birds and Harbor Seals hanging out on its shores. We didn’t spend too much time before passing Cattle Point Lighthouse and beginning our transit to south Hein Bank. We were receiving reports of not one, but two Humpback Whales feeding and...

Olivia Esqueda | May 28th, 2025 | M/V Kestrel | 2:00pm

What a fun day on Kestrel with Captain Vaun! We had a small group of folks, which always leads to more personal conversations and deeper storytelling when it comes to the area, the wildlife, and the history of the islands. We worked our way south through San Juan Channel, making a slow cruise past Goose Island to see many different bird species, including Pelagic Cormorants, Double Crested Cormorants, Pigeon Guillemots, Canada Geese...

Olivia Ellman | M/V Kestrel | May 31st, 2025 | 2:00 PM 

This afternoon’s Adventure Whale Watch left Friday Harbor in high spirits as the skies cleared and gave us a beautiful, sunny cruise up San Juan Channel. Our first stop was at White Rocks, where we saw two bald eagles and a number of harbor seals! We got great looks at the many varieties of colors of the seals, and even saw a few swimming in the water around the island. We then continued our travels north, past Waldron Island and towards...

Kelly | M/V Kestrel| Tuesday, May 27th 2025 | 2pm

It's days like to today that truly feel like the Salish Sea is just teaming with marine life. We were treated to almost non-stop wildlife on today's Adventure Tour. We took a right out of Friday Harbor only to instantly have a guest point out a bald eagle on Turn Island. We quickly realized there were 3 bald eagles in the area, two adults and one juvenile.  One of the adults was right on the waters edge, picking away at a fish with his razor sharp...

Kelly | M/V Kestrel | Friday, May 25th 2025 | 2pm

The weather was nearly perfect as we took a right out of Friday Harbor and pointed south. Our first wildlife encounter of the day was a humpback whale just off Salmon Bank. In just the past week, humpbacks sighting have become more and more frequent! This is exactly the time of year they began making their way into the Salish Sea from their winter breading grounds in either Hawaii or Mexico. This humpback was likely feeding here at salmon bank, a...