Maxx | M/V Kestrel | September 11th 2024 | 2:00pm

Killer whales in this region are not tagged and haven’t been since 2013 (except for the occasional use of non-piercing suction cup tagging devices that are deployed every now and again). The devices that are used are almost exclusively used for data collection: determining where whales travel, what depths they’re diving to, what depth within in the water collum they’re typically feeding, and so on. Therefore, we don’t use tagging data to find...

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...

Maxx | M/V Sea Lion | September 7th 2024 | 12:30pm

Serendipitous moments like we saw on today’s tour are always a bit confounding to me as I cruise around the San Juans. Yesterday a big group of Bigg’s Killer Whales passed through the San Juan Channel, down around Jones Island and into Orca’s Islands Deer Harbor. They milled there and carried on again, up around Orcas Island and through Presidents Pass. 

Today’s tour was remarkably similar- It didn’t take long for Sea Lion to leave Friday Harbor...

Maxx | M/V Kestrel | September 5th 2024 | 2:00pm

September is without a doubt my favorite month to transit through the Salish sea; the lighting is perfect, town has mellowed out a bit, and certain frequent flier whales make their way back to the region for a visit. 

The T018s seem to love the shoulder season here. With a range anywhere from SE Alaska straight down to Northern California, Bigg’s killer whales could theoretically be seen all throughout the year in this region. However, they don’t...

Maxx | M/V Kestrel | August 31st 2024 | 2:00pm

Kestrel’s second tour of the day was incredible. The family of three Bigg’s Killer whales, the T018s, continued thy journey around Lopez and had now made their way up to Orcas islands eastern coastline. We found them by the Peapod islands and were almost immediately greeted with a spy hop (when a whale propels its face vertically out of the water) as birds buzzed around them. I only assume that this family was once again, feeding.

The T018s are...

Haleigh | M/V Sea Lion | October 7, 2022 | 12:30 pm 

As we set off for our Classic Whale Watching tour today, we ventured south in search of wildlife. We made our way through San Juan Channel through feeding Harbor Porpoises and flocks of birds. After we travelled through Cattle Pass, we heard the roars of Steller’s Sea Lions hauled out on Whale Rocks. Some of the large sea lions were thrashing in the water while others were posed atop the rocks with heads regally pointed high...

Maxx K. | M/V Kestrel | 008/15/2022 | 12:30pm
Today was a stunner! My goodness was it beautiful out- the sun was out and proud, Baker, Reiner and the Olympics stood boldly over the Juan de Fuca and seas were as calm as could be (we LOVE that). Kestrel carefully meandered out of Friday Harbor and zipped south through the San Juan Channel. It didn’t take too long for us to make our first stop at a haul out of Harbor Seals.
We most often see these pinnipeds hauled out on rocky...

Haleigh | M/V Osprey | July 31, 2022 | 12:30pm

As we headed off the dock on a beautiful warm day, we received an early report of Bigg’s Orca Whales… but they were running away from us. The T37A’s were making a run for it out the Strait of Juan de fuca, towards the open ocean. The only question was, could we get to them before they escaped? Captain Gabe yelled, “Full speed ahead!”, cranked the accelerator and the quest was afoot. 

We made our way through the bottle-necked channel...

7/29/22

MV Kestrel

Helena

10am

Our morning adventure tour on MV Kestrel left the sunny harbor eager for all the Salish Sea has to offer. As we are one of the first boats on the water each morning, our main focus is scanning broadly, making sure to not miss any blows or dorsal fins along shorelines! We headed south down San Juan Channel towards Cattle Pass. With views of beautiful Cattle Point Lighthouse off of our starboard side, our first stop was Whale Rocks. These small rocky...

7/21/22

MV Kestrel

2pm

Helena

We journeyed north up San Juan Channel following reports of wildlife in Boundary Pass. With the base of Mount Baker off our starboard side, the group was buzzing for the potential of what we might encounter!

Captain Michael slowed down first at the Cactus Islands through New Channel. This serene area east of Spieden Island was perfect for viewing some Harbor Seals and their newborn pups! There are nearly 40,000 individual harbor seals in the Salish...