Welcome to the Whale Report Blog

Maxx K. | M/V Kestrel | 09/11/2021 | 2:00pm

Today was the day I had been anticipating when I moved up to Washington: chilly, rainy, grey. While it was really only sprinkling throughout our trip we were being thoroughly blasted by water as Kestrel flew through the Salish Sea. This is, after all, the adventure tour!

    We made our first stop at Whale Rocks to check out some Steller Sea Lions. On grey days like today I find they tend to chill out on the rocks, as there isn’t much sun...

Maxx K. | M/V Kestrel | 09/10/2021 | 2:00pm

    Kestrel raced through the San Juan Channel and swiftly popped out into the open Juan de Fuca. Now we’re full steam ahead. A popular family of six whales had been spotted hard south just north of Port Williams but getting there would mean 50 minutes of high speed flying. Fortunately, this is exactly what Kestrel was made for so Captain Eric and I were stoked. 

    When we finally arrived on scene, we were greeted by one whale: T065A3,...

Abby | M/V Kestrel | 2pm | 9/9/2021

Captain Solan and I slipped out of the harbor, deliberately cruising south through San Juan Channel to spot many different species, including:

• Steller Sea Lions
• Harbor Seals
• Double-Crested Cormorants
• Pelagic Cormorants
• Glaucous-Winged Gulls
• Marbled Murrelets
• Pigeon Guillemots

As we were viewing a large congregation of birds feasting on a bait ball, Solan and I received word of a family of Biggs (transient) killer whales heading north through...

Haleigh | M/V Sea Lion | September 9, 2021 | 1:30 pm

Our classic whale watching tour took off smoothly with blue skies around us and a boat full of passengers excited to search for wildlife! We began heading south through the San Juan Channel headed towards the Strait of Juan de Fuca. As we came through Cattle Pass, the smell of harbor seals and Steller’s sea lions wafted towards our vessel and drew us closer. We listened to the growls and play fighting by these toasty-brown males...

Abby | M/V Kestrel | 2pm | 9/8/2021

Captain Solan and I cruised out of the harbor with the intention of viewing what is known as a “T-Party,” where several families of transient, or Biggs, killer whales were playfully interacting with one another. We zipped in between Shaw and Lopez Island, through Obstruction Pass, and headed North through the Rosario Strait before seeing our first exhalations and dorsal fins dotting the surface of the water.

Below is a list of the matrilines we...

Haleigh | M/V Kestrel | September 4, 2021 | 10:00 am and 2:00 pm

Both our morning and afternoon adventure tour began cruising south through the San Juan Channel. One observant guest on our AM trip picked up a Minke Whale almost immediately with our guest spotting the elongated body and hooked dorsal fin poking up through the water. This Minke Whale surfaced a few times but seemed to be cruising northbound, so we said our goodbyes and continued the search. 

This took us towards...

Maxx K. | M/V Sea Lion | 09/04/2021 | 1:30pm

    Today was another grey day. It felt like 7:00pm all afternoon as the sun never seemed to be able to creep out from behind the clouds. Yet still, the seas were flat calm, glassy. These are perfect whale spotting conditions and myself and our boatful of guests were hyped to get out there and see what we could find. 

    There was only one whale report this morning: a family called the T100s that were currently foraging just south of Hein...

Maxx K. | M/V Kestrel | 09/03/2021 | 2:00pm

    Today was a pretty cold day. Grey clouds covered the sky and seemed to block out the sun as Kestrel raced down the San Juan channel towards the Juan De Fuca. In my time working on boats however, I’ve learned to really value a grey day. I find it’s much easier to spot whales or even simply disturbances on the water when there’s not an intense glare from the sun. A sharp black orca dorsal fin can be pretty hard to miss on a day like...

An afternoon with an incredible Southern Resident family, the L54s! 

Maxx K. | M/V Kestrel | 09/02/2021 | 2:00pm

    It was a beautiful afternoon on the Salish Sea! Seas were calm, the dignified Olympic mountains peered down over the islands and Southern Residents were rumored to be in the area. When Captain Solan and I left Friday Harbor, we weren’t entirely sure what our game plan was: the last reports of L54 and her family were pretty far south of us and trending further...

Haleigh | M/V Kestrel | September 1, 2021 | 2:00 pm

With the summer ending, each of us are reflecting on the wildlife experiences for the summer. Historically, we would have expected Southern Resident Killer Whales feeding and socializing along the west side of San Juan Island. SRKWs are now critically endangered due to the lack of salmon, specifically chinook salmon, in the Salish Sea. Typically our SRKWs would be around 70/80 days. Up until today, we had seen them 3 times… making...