Olivia Ellman | M/V Sea Lion | September 20th, 2024 | 12:30 pm

Nobody could have predicted the crazy trip ahead of us as we left Friday Harbor on our afternoon Classic Whale Watch! We had reports of some killer whales traveling interisland, so we began by heading around Turn Island and stopping to look at some harbor seals before continuing east. We traveled in between Shaw and Lopez Islands, and soon saw a group of boats ahead of us rounding into East Sound of Orcas Island. As we approached the...

Lauren | M/V Kestrel | September 18th, 2024 | 2:00 pm

Our 2:00 pm Kestrel tour was a perfectly well-rounded wildlife tour. We often see different species of whales and wildlife out on the water, but to see as much as we did today is rare. We saw species from three of the five major categories of marine mammals: cetaceans, pinnipeds and even a mustelid! We started our tour by heading south in San Juan Channel. Our first stop was to search the kelp bed off Turn Island for a rumored sea otter. Sea...

Olivia Ellman | M/V Sea Lion | September 17th, 2024 | 12:30 pm

Our Classic Whale Watch felt like Fall as we left Friday Harbor in overcast and cooler weather, but that certainly didn’t deter us from having a great day on the water! We left the dock and headed north, following up on a report of some killer whales. We traveled up San Juan Channel, following the western side of Orcas Island heading towards Patos Island. After a look at Patos Lighthouse, we rounded the corner and saw a few other...

Kelly | M/V Sea Lion | September 15th, 2024 | 12:30pm

Southward was the plan as we left Friday Harbor on our Classic Whale Watch and Wildlife Tour. A rumored report of killer whales in the Strait of Juan de Fuca was our destination, a long run on the ole M/V Sea Lion but we were determined to make it work! As we transited down San Juan Channel and approached Cattle Pass, guests aboard pointed out splashing in the distance! After slowing the boat to investigate, it became clear that the splashing...

Lauren | M/V Sea Lion | September 14th, 2024 | 12:30 pm

Our Sunday trip aboard the M/V Sea Lion took us about as far as we can go during a 3-to-4-hour whale watching tour out of Friday Harbor. The only whales we knew of were slowly exiting the Puget Sound, heading north-west out of Admiralty Inlet. Captain Gabe and I hoped for the best and headed south in San Juan Channel. We stopped at Goose Island to look at some Double-Crested Cormorant nests and some hauled our harbor seals. We cruised...

Lauren | M/V Kestrel | September 13th, 2024 | 2:00 pm

The M/V Kestrel is our adventure boat, and our 2:00 pm Saturday trip was nothing short of an adventure. Nothing like celebrating the tail end of our summer whale watch tours with a torrential downpour! 

We left the dock, cruised out of Friday Harbor and headed north in San Juan Channel. Our first stop was to Sentinel Rock, a predominate harbor seal haul out site near Spieden Island. Harbor seals are super important to our ecosystem as they...

Lauren | M/V Sea Lion | September 12th, 2024 | 12:30pm

Our Thursday afternoon tour aboard the M/V Sea Lion started how we wish every tour would begin. Not only did we have reports of killer whales, but we had reports of multiple killer whale social gatherings. Not one, but two T-Partys had been found in Rosario Strait. A “T-Party” refers to a large group of Bigg’s AKA Transient (hence the “T”) killer whales. For a gathering to be a true T-Party, there must be members from at least three different...

Olivia Ellman | M/V Sea Lion | September 13th, 2024 | 12:30 pm

Our afternoon trip left Friday Harbor in a bit of overcast weather, but still determined to find some whales in the region. The nearest reports we had as we were leaving were close to Victoria, BC so we began by heading south down San Juan Channel. We made a stop in Cattle Pass to look at a group of harbor seals hauled out on Goose Island as well as the many seabirds in the area. This was a great starting point to learn about our...

Olivia Ellman | M/V Kestrel | September 12th, 2024 | 2:00 pm

Today’s Adventure Whale Watch was an amazing, whale filled afternoon through the San Juan Islands. We had heard reports of multiple groups of Bigg’s Killer Whales in the area before leaving the dock, so we left Friday Harbor already excited for what we could find. We began by traveling interisland to the east, looping around Blakely Island to find our first group of whales. We got a quick look at a group of about four Bigg’s traveling...

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...