​Helena 7/10/2022 MV Kestrel 10am   MV Kestrel had a jam packed Saturday with wildlife everywhere we looked! We began our adventure heading south as we received some reports from other vessels south of Lopez Island in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. With the Olympics peeking out behind the clouds, we made it through Cattle Pass and out of the San Juan Channel. We quickly caught up with a pod of the mammal-eating ecotype of orca whale in the Salish Sea, Bigg's Killer Whales! On scene were...

July 8th, 2022

Abby Dahl

2pm Kestrel

Captain Gabe and I zipped out of the harbor with hopes of seeing some Biggs killer whales spotted in Boundary Pass; the same group we saw that morning. They were the T065A’s, my favorite matriline in all the Salish Sea, quite possibly my favorite whales in the entire world.

The T065A’s are made up of:

• T065A “Artemis” (1986, Female, Mother of all listed below)
  
  • T065A2 “Ooxjaa” (2004, Male)
  • T065A3 “Amira” (2007, Gender Unknown)
  • T065A4 “Ellifrit”...

July 8th, 2022

Abby Dahl

10am Kestrel

Captain Gabe and I zipped out of the harbor with hopes of seeing some Biggs killer whales spotted north. Rumor had it that they were the T065A’s, my favorite matriline in all the Salish Sea, quite possibly my favorite whales in the entire world.

The T065A’s are made up of:

• T065A “Artemis” (1986, Female, Mother of all listed below)
  
  • T065A2 “Ooxjaa” (2004, Male)
  • T065A3 “Amira” (2007, Gender Unknown)
  • T065A4 “Ellifrit” (2011, Female)
  • T065A5 “Elsie”...

Haleigh | M/V Kestrel | July 3, 2022 | 10:00 am

Today’s whale and wildlife excursion aboard M/V Kestrel reaffirmed the title of our Adventure Tour! Guests suited up in the rain and endured the gusts of wind as we traveled north through the San Juan Channel. We made our way to White Rock to scan for wildlife. All along the rocky crevices, pelagic birds like Glaucous-Winged Gulls and Pigeon Guillemots burrowed into a nesting formation. At the water’s edge, Harbor Seals hauled out...

We began our journey today heading south down San Juan Channel. We observed some Harbor Seals hauled out along the shoreline of San Juan Island. These pinnipeds come in varying colors and can also frequently have speckles across their bodies. Not long afterwards we came across another pinniped that lives here in the Salish Sea, the Steller Sea Lion! Hauled up on Whale Rocks we found over a dozen of these mammals above the water line thermoregulating. This was a great way for us to...

Helena MV Kestrel 7/1/2022 10am  

This morning’s adventure on MV Kestrel was filled with beautiful wildlife and stunning views of the Gulf Islands here in the Salish Sea. We began our journey north out of Friday Harbor and up San Juan Channel towards Boundary Pass. Our first stop was White Rock where we spotted some Harbor Seals hauled out along the shoreline. Our harbor seal population is considered to be at carrying capacity, hovering around 40,000 individuals total, which is the...

June 30th, 2022

Abby Dahl

2pm M/V Kestrel

Captain Michael and I loaded up our passengers and scooted left out of Friday Harbor, Northbound through San Juan Channel. We almost immediately turned around to head south, as a group of Biggs killer whales were heading northeast towards the west side of San Juan Island. It’s a precarious thing, where the harbor is located on the island and creating a path to whales on the other side. Do we go north? South? Animals are always unpredictable...

June 30th, 2022

Abby Dahl

10am M/V Kestrel

Captain Michael and I peeled out of the harbor, knowing it was about to be a long journey in our search for whales. We had only one report of Bigg’s killer whales near Race Rocks in British Columbia, Canada, so we took a right and began heading south through San Juan Channel. It was almost ironic, as we immediately found a pair of humpback whales upon our southbound journey. They were taking long dives, so we only saw them a few times before...

Helena

6/29/2022

MV Kestrel

 

Our first encounter of the day was with a Stellar Sea Lion chowing down what appeared to be large chunks of a fish in the middle of a baitball! A baitball is large cluster of small schooling fish near the surface of the water, from our vessels we can identify a bait ball by large groups of birds sitting or taking dives and low swoops at the waterline. We continued south down San Juan Channel to Whale Rocks where we found more Stellar Sea Lions and Harbor...

Maxx K. | M/V Kestrel | 06/28/2022 | 2:00pm

    Sometimes it's really nice to mix things up. We are super fortunate for pretty stellar weather during the summer: sunny skies and little wind. Though every now and again Mother Nature mixes it up on us, and today was one of those days. 

    Kestrel zoomed out of Friday Harbor southbound, shooting out of Cattle Pass and rounding the southern shores of Lopez Island. We stopped at Davidson Rock where we heard rumors of a Humpback whale. 

 ...