[7/21/17- M/V Kestrel- 10AM & 2PM]

We left Friday Harbor with the plans of heading South toward Puget Sound.  We got reports of transient killer whales towards that area and decided to look for some additional wildlife on our way down. 

We made one of our common wildlife stops, the whale rocks, where we found some harbor seals as well as a lone Steller’s sea lion.  Most of the Steller’s sea lions have all gone North to the beaches of Alaska for their breeding season.  However, some...

1. [Naturalist Erick D., M/V Kestrel, 7/24/17, 2:00PM]

Yesterday, Captain Mike and I took a great group of folks from Friday Harbor to search for whales and other wildlife! We first went south towards Cattle Pass and Whale Rocks. Whale Rocks are a collection of rocks south of Lopez Island. They are called such because they appear like whales rising from the waves not due to the presence of whales, but it is a super beautiful place! As the tidal flow ripped around the rocks we saw a...

[7/17/17- M/V Sea Lion- 1:30 PM]

Another day out on the water here in the beautiful Salish Sea!  We left our dock in Friday Harbor and headed to the North West side of Orcas Island.  Once we got to that area we found a couple different families of transient killer whales, but we focused our attention on the T77’s. 

The T77’s have five individuals in their family, T77, who is the 36-year-old matriarch of the group, and all of her offspring.  Her youngest kiddo, T77E, is about a year...

(7/15/17- M/V Sea Lion- 1:30 PM and 5:30 PM)

Another day on the water with whale calves!  We saw the same two families of whales on both our afternoon and sunset trip departing from Friday Harbor, the T34’s and part of the T37’s. 

These individual whales have been hanging out in near the San Juan Islands for the past few weeks, but today they were North of San Juan Island in Canadian waters.  On our first trip we watched the whales in the lower portion of the Strait of Georgia.  By...

Lauren Fritz, M/V Kestrel, 7/17/17, 2:00 pm Tour

M/V Kestrel had a smooth, eventful tour today. The weather was perfect, light breeze, glassy seas. We were in high spirits as we pulled off the dock in Friday Harbor, ready to search for whatever wildlife nature wanted to show us. In such a biodiverse area as the Salish Sea, almost anything is possible. We had barely picked up speed before we spotted our first bald eagle! I took it as a good sign for the rest of our trip - and wow, we...

[7/14/17- M/V Kestrel- 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM]

M/V Kestrel had two trips today leave from Friday Harbor on San Juan Island.  On our 10 AM and 2 PM departure we saw the same group of transients, a combination on a few families of transients, totaling in 12 whales!

 It is always great to see this large amount of transients hanging out together.  Generally, when we see the mammal-eating orcas we only see one family at a time, averaging at about 4-5 individuals.  Today we saw three...

[7/13/17- M/V Kestrel- 10:00 AM]

Nothing like an orca calf to start your day off right!  Today we left Friday Harbor for our morning whale watching tour and headed just North of Orcas Island to see a few transient orca families in action. 

When we arrived on scene the orcas were fragmented between the two different groups, but they quickly grouped back up together and started traveling East quickly.  We saw T51, the 36-year-old lone male who has been seen traveling with the T37’s for...

7/9/17 – Sea Lion 1:30 PM Departure

Today on our afternoon sea lion trip we were lucky enough to watch some transient orcas.  Transient orcas have been the name of the game this whale watching season, which is giving our guests and naturalists a good opportunity to observe the differences in the transient and resident behavior and physiology.  One major difference is their pod make-up or social groupings.  Resident orca pods are made of an entire extended family...

7/7/17 - Kestrel 2:00 PM Departure

Today we left Friday Harbor at 2pm and couldn’t ask for better reports to start our trip with.  We headed just a bit North inside San Juan channel and came across ‘Divot’, a humpback whale commonly seen in this area.  We watched as he surfaced regularly and displayed consistent dive times.  He also had exceptionally good fluke out dives, with the underside of the tail fully visible. 

We then made our way to the North side of Shaw Island and hung out...

7/3/17 - Sea Lion 1:30 & 5:30 PM Departure

Our pre-fourth of July celebration was exceptional!  The T49A’s hanging out Northwest of San Juan Island.   The T49A’s are made up of four whales, the matriarch and her three offspring.  We were lucky enough to see the whales feeding on both our afternoon and sunset tour.  The whales seemed rather relaxed throughout the day while continuing to feed, on what we would assume to be harbor seals.  Harbor seals make up about 60% of the diet of...