Olivia Ellman | M/V Kestrel | May 10th, 2026 | 2:00 pm

When we left the harbor, I had no idea that today’s trip would end up being one of my most memorable! We began by heading north in San Juan Channel, and quickly reached reports of the T49A Bigg’s Killer Whale matriline. We stopped for some quick looks, but continued on to search for some other reports we had heard about. Our search brought us into the outer islands near Patos, and we found a trio of Bigg’s from the T124A matriline; T124A, A6...

Abby | M/V Kestrel | May 9th, 2026 | 2:00pm

Yet again, a beautiful day to get on the water! I will never get tired of saying that. We left Friday Harbor with calm seas and blue skies. There were already a few reports in the area, and it is just a matter of choosing the best way to go. Our first stop was Turn Rock, where there was a report of a sea otter! Sure enough, there it was, floating like a log on the edge of a kelp forest. This was my first sea otter spotting of the season! It is not often...

Abby | M/V Kestrel | May 3rd, 2026 | 2:00pm

Today's trip quite literally left me speechless. We left our dock in Friday Harbor with reports within our range of 3 different whale species. We genuinely had the trip of a lifetime ahead of us. We left the harbor and traveled interisland along the Washington State Ferry route. We passed the Lopez Island Ferry Dock and turned southeast towards Thatcher Pass. Just east of Thatcher Pass in Rosario Strait was a report of a humpback whale. It had been a...

Abby | M/V Kestrel | April 25th, 2026 | 2:00pm

I could not have asked for a better trip today. The sun was shining, the water was calm, and we already had some reports of whales in our range before we left the dock. However, before we saw some cetaceans, we had a surprise visitor towards the southern end of San Juan Island! An infrequently seen species of pinniped was spotted on Goose Island, a female elephant seal! We don't usually find elephant seals in these waters, so it was an incredible...

Abby | M/V Kestrel | April 24th, 2026 | 1:00pm

A beautiful day out on the water today! We turned left in San Juan Channel and headed north to begin our trip. Our first stop was Green Point on the southern end of Spieden Island. We had great looks of a raft of Steller's Sea Lions in the water, as well as numerous individuals hauled out on shore. Shortly after our time with the Steller's, we ventured over to White Rock to hopefully find some harbor seals. We did, which is good! We were having such...

Abby | M/V Kestrel | April 5th, 2026 | 2pm

The first M/V Kestrel trip of the season kicked off with sunny skies and beautiful waters. We traveled south in San Juan Channel and made our way towards Cattle Point, the southernmost point on San Juan Island. Our first stop was to Whale Rocks, where Steller’s Sea Lions haul out. Hold your breath, because unfortunately we were downwind and caught some striking sniffs of their stench. We also couldn’t help hearing their barking sounds as they...

Logan Stecker | M/V Kestrel | August 27th 2025 | 2:00 pm

What an amazing outing out on the water! Today we headed northbound to follow reports of Killer Whales near Saturna Island. On the way we stopped by White Rocks and learned more about Transient Killer Whale prey by observing dozens of seals hauled out on the rocks. Many of these seals were small and young having just come out of this year’s pupping season. Seals in this area have gotten to carrying capacity meaning that they are at the...

Logan Stecker | M/V Kestrel | August 30th 2025 | 10:00 am

Today was such beautiful weather and we got so lucky with our expedition for today.

We started our search north towards Spieden Island and as soon as we got there whales were sighted on the other side! Great timing! We made our way along to watch them and were greeted by the T075Bs! This family consists of the mother (Pebbles) and her children (Jasper, Rubble, Petra, and an unnamed newborn). This was an amazing experience as they started...

Logan Stecker | M/V Kestrel | August 22nd 2025 | 10:00 am

A great morning to be out looking for whales! Every morning trip begins with anticipation and excitement as no whales have been found yet and we get to try and predict the best areas to search based on yesterday’s movements and groups.

Today with a combination of luck and skill, we found the whales early on! This was near the Darcy islands and the group of 5 we found were the T049As! The mother of this group, Nan, is 39 years old and...

Logan Stecker | M/V Kestrel | August 22nd 2025 | 2:00 pm

A beautiful afternoon to be on a boat. Leaving Friday Harbor, we began a journey south past Cattle point making our first stop at Whale Rocks. There we saw a multitude of large male Steller’s Sea Lions battling it out for space and playing on the rocks. This species is the largest sea lion in the world and has a skull similar in size and shape to a Grizzly Bear. The larger sagittal crest atop the skull gives surface area for muscle to...