Welcome to the Whale Report Blog

Olivia | M/V Osprey | August 21st, 2024 | 12:30pm

Summer season out here in the San Juan Islands is considered peak season, bringing in the opportunity to see potentially two ecotypes of Killer Whales, Humpback Whales, Minke Whales, and Gray Whales. While statistics continually reflect on that, every day is a brand-new adventure on where or what type of whale it is we are going to see. Starting off August, we had a bit of a Killer Whale lull in the Salish Sea, where Pacific Whale Watch...

Olivia | San Juan Safaris | August 19th, 2024 

After a long hiatus while getting our NEW website up and running, our daily blogs are back! 

We will be documenting whale and wildlife sightings daily from all three of our vessels to provide a sneak peak of where we’ve been traveling and what wildlife has been visiting the Salish Sea- while hopefully teaching you something along the way. We will also be providing bonus material for extra education and conservation topics, and photos of course! 

Every...

Haleigh | M/V Sea Lion | October 7, 2022 | 12:30 pm 

As we set off for our Classic Whale Watching tour today, we ventured south in search of wildlife. We made our way through San Juan Channel through feeding Harbor Porpoises and flocks of birds. After we travelled through Cattle Pass, we heard the roars of Steller’s Sea Lions hauled out on Whale Rocks. Some of the large sea lions were thrashing in the water while others were posed atop the rocks with heads regally pointed high...

Maxx K. | M/V Sea Lion | 09/28/2022 | 12:30pm

    I was proper geeking out on today’s Classic Whale Watch. Now of course, the Salish Sea is well known to be an incredibly biodiverse ecosystem that allows us spectators to witness and appreciate a varied abundance of marine life- from tiny invertebrates to fifty ton cetaceans. Working out on the water, we become accustomed to our regular visitors: Humpback whales, Biggs killer whales, Steller sea lions, and Harbor seals just to name a...

Elle | M/V Kestrel | 9/26/2022 | 2:00PM

On today's Adventure Tour, we headed South out of Friday Harbor to look for wildlife. Just south of the harbor, we encountered a haul-out of harbor seals in San Juan Channel on some small rocky islands. The harbor seal population has grown significantly over the last few decades. At over 40,000 individuals in the Salish Sea, their population is at carrying capacity. This happened because of restoration efforts on eel grass, a critical habitat...

Elle | M/V Sea Lion | 9/19/2022 | 1:30PM

Today’s Classic Tour took us way up into Canada’s Gulf Islands. We followed reports of orca whales north out of Friday Harbor and caught up to them between Saturna Island and South Pender Island. We watched as two mammal-eating Bigg’s killer whales circled the petite Blunden Island, hunting harbor seals. While we didn’t witness a kill on today’s trip, we got a glimpse of some of the stealthy, yet aggressive hunting tactics employed by those...

Elle | M/V Osprey | 9/25/2022 | 12:30PM

Today on our vessel, M/V Osprey, we headed south to search for a humpback whale. As we headed down San Juan Channel, we got some quick looks at five-foot harbor porpoises on both sides of our boat. In Cattle Pass, right next to Cattle Point Lighthouse, Goose Island is home to a colony of double-crested cormorants. These diving birds have built stick-nests where they lay their eggs and hatch their chicks. We headed down past the southern tip of...

Elle | M/V Kestrel | 9/24/2022 | 2:00PM

Today's adventure tour started in Friday Harbor. From there, we headed south in San Juan Channel. We made our first stop at Goose Island in Cattle Pass. This island is surrounded by bull kelp, an essential part of the ecosystem here in the Salish Sea, and one of the fastest growing organisms on earth. Attop the island sat dozens of stick nests made by double-crested cormorants. After some great looks at these deep-diving birds, we prepared for...

Elle | M/V Sea Lion | 9/23/2022 | 1:30PM

Today, on M/V Sea Lion, we headed south to try to catch a glimpse of some orca whales which had been reported in the strait of Juan de Fuca. We headed south through San Juan Channel, past Cattle Point Lighthouse, and into the strait. After a nice, long journey southwest, we encountered two Bigg’s killer whales; brothers T60D and T60E. These boys have been in the area for the last week or so, from Canada’s Gulf Islands up north, to south of...

Lauren | M/V Sea Lion | 9/20/2022 | 1:30 PM 

The boys are back… The boys are back… Bigg’s killer whales Onca and Lynx were back at it again, popping up on the westside of San Juan Island unannounced for the second time this week. Similar to our tour yesterday, we started our trip without any firm whale reports and planned to head south to scan for whales in Salmon Bank.  

Our 1:30 pm Classic Tour took a right out of Friday Harbor and headed down San Juan Channel. On our way down...