Kelly | M/V Kestrel | August 26th 2024 | 2PM

Aboard the M/V Kestrel on our 2pm Adventure tour, we left Friday Harbor with high spirits and turned left to zoom up San Juan Channel. We heard a rumored report of whales around Coal Island, just off shore from Sidney, BC. We quickly curved over the top of San Juan Island and made our way straight across the Canadian border. As we neared Coal Island the rain began, and quite frankly...it never stopped. This amount of participation is unusual for this...

Maxx K. | M/v Osprey | August 28th, 2024 | 12:20pm 

Bigg’s Killer whales have a typical range from SE Alaska, straight down the coasts of Washington and Oregon to Northern California. However, they don’t seem to follow a typical “migration” in the ways our Humpback visitors do. Different families seem to pass through at different times of year. Were still learning about how they move and with all the incredible data collection that happens in this region, we may begin to further understand...

Kelly | M/V Kestrel | August 26th 2024 |10AM

We took a left outside Friday Harbor and pointed north up San Juan Channel. First stop, Flattop Island, one of our national wildlife refuges. Almost immediately we laid eyes on a group of harbor seals resting on the rocky shoreline. After cruising down the north side of the island for a few moments, we noticed a full grown bald eagle perched in the trees. 

Next stop, killer whales! We took a sharp left turn and cruised through Spiedan Channel to...

Olivia Ellman | M/V Osprey | August 25th, 2024 | 12:30pm

Summer weather came back today as we departed Friday Harbor under sunny skies! We took a left out of the harbor heading north in San Juan Channel, and quickly caught up with a group of Bigg’s Killer Whales traveling close by! This family of four turned out to be the T075Bs, consisting of mom Pebbles and her three calves born in 2015, 2017, and 2021! We enjoyed our sunny cruise up the channel with them as they traveled along the shoreline on...

Olivia | M/V Osprey | August 24th, 2024 | 12:30pm 

Luck was on our side today as we encountered two different species of whales in the Haro Strait! We left Friday Harbor and began our search for whales going south through San Juan Channel. As we neared Cattle Point we stopped for a look at some harbor seals and sea birds, which are great signs of our productive ecosystem out here!

We continued our travels to the north west following up on some earlier reports of various whales in the area, and as...

Elle | M/V Kestrel | 9/26/2022 | 2:00PM

On today's Adventure Tour, we headed South out of Friday Harbor to look for wildlife. Just south of the harbor, we encountered a haul-out of harbor seals in San Juan Channel on some small rocky islands. The harbor seal population has grown significantly over the last few decades. At over 40,000 individuals in the Salish Sea, their population is at carrying capacity. This happened because of restoration efforts on eel grass, a critical habitat...

Elle | M/V Sea Lion | 9/19/2022 | 1:30PM

Today’s Classic Tour took us way up into Canada’s Gulf Islands. We followed reports of orca whales north out of Friday Harbor and caught up to them between Saturna Island and South Pender Island. We watched as two mammal-eating Bigg’s killer whales circled the petite Blunden Island, hunting harbor seals. While we didn’t witness a kill on today’s trip, we got a glimpse of some of the stealthy, yet aggressive hunting tactics employed by those...

Elle | M/V Osprey | 9/25/2022 | 12:30PM

Today on our vessel, M/V Osprey, we headed south to search for a humpback whale. As we headed down San Juan Channel, we got some quick looks at five-foot harbor porpoises on both sides of our boat. In Cattle Pass, right next to Cattle Point Lighthouse, Goose Island is home to a colony of double-crested cormorants. These diving birds have built stick-nests where they lay their eggs and hatch their chicks. We headed down past the southern tip of...

Elle | M/V Sea Lion | 9/16/2022 | 1:30PM

Today, Bigg's killer whales swam right past Friday Harbor as they hunted harbor seals. Three big males put on a show for the Washington State Ferry, Chelan. Some of the lucky passengers on that ferry joined us on our vessel, Sea Lion and got a second look at a different family of orcas later in the afternoon. By the time we left Friday Harbor, those big males had headed south into rough, windy seas. We headed north and caught up to a group of...

Elle | M/V Osprey | 8/26/2022 | 1:30 PM

Today was a wild day close to home! On Osprey, we often spend an hour or more searching for wildlife. Today was not one of those days! On the south side of Flattop Island, we encountered a majestic bald eagle and a haul out of harbor seals with a few new pups among them. On the northern side of Flattop, we found seven Bigg’s killer whales! As the wind whipped up two-foot waves, we watched these apex predators hunt a seal along the rocky edges...