Maxx K. | M/V Kestrel | 09/20/2021 | 2:00pm

    Today’s tour was a naturalist's dream. When Solan pulled Kestrel out of Friday Harbor we turned northward. A family of unidentified Bigg’s Killer Whales had been reported off the south side of Saturna Island. We had our heading and off we went! 

    We stopped briefly to check out a Bald Eagle, perfectly poised on a small sign post on Jones Island. From there we moved north towards White Rock to admire some Harbor Seals and cormorants...

Maxx K. | M/V Kestrel | 09/16/2021 | 2:00pm

    Kestrel flew out of Friday harbor with purpose this morning: a family of Bigg’s Killer whales had been reported passing through Deception Pass State Park and were now traveling across the Juan De Fuca. We stopped briefly at goose island to observe the cormorants that sat proudly over their neatly stacked nests. A harbor seal passed at the water's edge, diving to forage amongst the Bull Kelp forest that sat between us and the bird Island...

Maxx K. | M/V Kestrel | 09/11/2021 | 2:00pm

Today was the day I had been anticipating when I moved up to Washington: chilly, rainy, grey. While it was really only sprinkling throughout our trip we were being thoroughly blasted by water as Kestrel flew through the Salish Sea. This is, after all, the adventure tour!

    We made our first stop at Whale Rocks to check out some Steller Sea Lions. On grey days like today I find they tend to chill out on the rocks, as there isn’t much sun...

Maxx K. | M/V Kestrel | 09/10/2021 | 2:00pm

    Kestrel raced through the San Juan Channel and swiftly popped out into the open Juan de Fuca. Now we’re full steam ahead. A popular family of six whales had been spotted hard south just north of Port Williams but getting there would mean 50 minutes of high speed flying. Fortunately, this is exactly what Kestrel was made for so Captain Eric and I were stoked. 

    When we finally arrived on scene, we were greeted by one whale: T065A3,...

Maxx K. | M/V Sea Lion | 09/04/2021 | 1:30pm

    Today was another grey day. It felt like 7:00pm all afternoon as the sun never seemed to be able to creep out from behind the clouds. Yet still, the seas were flat calm, glassy. These are perfect whale spotting conditions and myself and our boatful of guests were hyped to get out there and see what we could find. 

    There was only one whale report this morning: a family called the T100s that were currently foraging just south of Hein...

Maxx K. | M/V Kestrel | 09/03/2021 | 2:00pm

    Today was a pretty cold day. Grey clouds covered the sky and seemed to block out the sun as Kestrel raced down the San Juan channel towards the Juan De Fuca. In my time working on boats however, I’ve learned to really value a grey day. I find it’s much easier to spot whales or even simply disturbances on the water when there’s not an intense glare from the sun. A sharp black orca dorsal fin can be pretty hard to miss on a day like...

An afternoon with an incredible Southern Resident family, the L54s! 

Maxx K. | M/V Kestrel | 09/02/2021 | 2:00pm

    It was a beautiful afternoon on the Salish Sea! Seas were calm, the dignified Olympic mountains peered down over the islands and Southern Residents were rumored to be in the area. When Captain Solan and I left Friday Harbor, we weren’t entirely sure what our game plan was: the last reports of L54 and her family were pretty far south of us and trending further...

Haleigh | M/V Kestrel | September 1, 2021 | 2:00 pm

With the summer ending, each of us are reflecting on the wildlife experiences for the summer. Historically, we would have expected Southern Resident Killer Whales feeding and socializing along the west side of San Juan Island. SRKWs are now critically endangered due to the lack of salmon, specifically chinook salmon, in the Salish Sea. Typically our SRKWs would be around 70/80 days. Up until today, we had seen them 3 times… making...

Haleigh | M/V Osprey | August 21, 2021 | 12:30 pm

Today’s classic whale watching adventure led us on a beautiful ride through the islands. We began heading interisland, sandwiched between the lush Orcas Island and Lopez Island. Following a report of some killer whales near Anacortes, we knew we were in for a nice boat ride with a sweet surprise. 

Slowing down to move through Peavine Pass, we noticed harbor porpoises swimming through the rippling waters. We continued through the...

Jordan | M/V Osprey | 08/20/2021 5:30pm

Everyone on board this evening was incredibly lucky as we were blessed with one of the best whale watches of the season to commemorate our last sunset tour of the season!

Captain Gabe, Olivia, Solan and I headed out to sea on m/v Osprey. As soon as we made it out of the harbor, one of the other captains from the Pacific Whale Watching Association (PWWA) let us know that they found orca whales! It turned out that there were whales just a few...