humpback whales

Naturalist Olivia | M/V Sea Lion | July 11th, 2020 | 12:00pm

It was my personal first trip on M/V Sea Hawk of the season and it definitely did not disappoint! We left Roche Harbor with gray skies, but our happy faces were no reflection of the weather, as everyone was already in good spirits as we traveled southwest through Mosquito Pass. We left the dock with potential whale rumors, which is always humbling on our retired fishing boat. Despite knowing there were potential...

Laura | M/V Sea Lion | 6/19/2020 | 12:00pm

What a gorgeous day to be out on the water!  The seas were glass calm and we were surrounded by sunshine and picturesque mountain views throughout our trip!  Mount Baker and the Cascades seemed especially vivid today.  Captain Pete and I headed north with 13 excited passengers on board through the San Juan Channel and into Boundary Pass.  We stopped along Flattop Island for some cute harbor seal viewing.  They were also enjoying...

Laura | M/V Sea Lion | 6/19/2020 | 12:00pm

What a gorgeous day to be out on the water!  The seas were glass calm and we were surrounded by sunshine and picturesque mountain views throughout our trip!  Mount Baker and the Cascades seemed especially vivid today.  Captain Pete and I headed north with 13 excited passengers on board through the San Juan Channel and into Boundary Pass.  We stopped along Flattop Island for some cute harbor seal viewing.  They were also enjoying...

Erin | M/V Sea Hawk | Wednesday, August 14, 2019 | 2:00 PM

It was a day to remember in the Salish Sea. We began our trip with no firm reports of whales in the area, but some vague reports of humpback whales very far south of San Juan Island. We were originally going to head in that direction, so we headed west out of Roche Harbor. We were cruising along the west side of San Juan Island when our Captain Erick spotted two large blows in the distance! We had found some...

Laura C. | M/V Sea Hawk | 7/31/21019 | 2:00pm

Today was an outstanding trip out of Roche Harbor!  M/V Sea Hawk carried passengers for only a few minutes before we had our first whale sighting!  We were so excited to hear reports that there was a humpback whale right outside the harbor!  Captain Sarah heard the news from a research vessel manned by The University of Washington and U.C Davis, studying whale scat!

As we approached the scene we all lifted our binos to see...

Erin | M/V Sea Hawk | 2:00 PM | Tuesday, July 9, 2019

What an incredible adventure aboard the M/V Sea Hawk! The sun was shining and the ocean was calm. It was a perfect day to be out on the water. We left the harbor and headed north toward East Point. We were destined for Canadian waters, where we heard that there were some humpback whales! We took a beautiful route through Johns Pass, where we saw a bald eagle resting on top of a flagpole. It was looking quite majestic...

[Saturday, 5/26/18 - M/V Seahawk - 3:00PM - Naturalist Erick]

This Memorial Day Weekend we got a little taste of summer. The sun was out it was a little bit warm for May and we have a lot of trips going out. On Saturday afternoon Captain Pete and I took Seahawk out with a great group of folks to go on another search of the Salish Sea for some interesting creatures. We first crossed Spieden Channel and scurried through the skinny Johns Pass and took looks out into...

It’s always a special day when we get to observe humpback whales in the Salish Sea. Since whalers started targeting our humpback population in their breeding grounds around Hawaii, their numbers have plummeted. Despite the passing of the international ban on whaling in 1982, it took until 2003 for humpbacks to rediscover our waters and begin establishing a population here. Today we have an estimated four dozen adult humpbacks that return to our waters every summer, so...

1. We can tell Humpback Whales apart by looking at their Tail Flukes and they are Catalogued!

The humpback whale we have been seeing in the last couple of weeks, “Heather” or BCY0160, is a local favorite around the San Juan Islands. She, like all other humpbacks, is readily identified by the markings on the underneath of her broad tail flukes. These makings are all unique to the individual whales, just as our fingerprints are unique to us. The designation BCY0160 is in...