Opening Weekend: March 17-19, 2023

Calm winds and nice weather this weekend helped us get our season off to a great start! All four species of whales were sighted in the Salish Sea this week.

Although we didn’t have a tour scheduled on Friday, after reports of some killer whales nearby, we decided to hop on the boat and go check them out…we love whale watching! It turned out to be a group of 14 Bigg’s Killer whales (marine mammal eaters). The group included the T099 family, led by their 39-year-old matriarch, Bella.

On Saturday we were able to spend time with a humpback whale identified as HX-MN0401003. This animal was slowly cruising north up Rosario Strait, looking for food along the way. We got many great looks at his magnificent tail, as he was taking lots of deep dives and sticking his tail out of the water, a behavior referred to as “fluking”. 

We were also fortunate to encounter a gray whale known as CRC-2440 off the northwest side of Whidbey Island on both Saturday and Sunday. Most of our local gray whales migrate to Mexico for the winter to breed, pass through the Salish Sea in the spring to feed, and spend the summer off the coast of Washington, British Columbia, or Alaska. CRC-2440 is a unique whale because he was first sighted in the area in January of 2022, and he has remained in the Salish Sea ever since!

On top of the whales, we saw many eagles, harbor porpoises, steller sea lions, harbor seals, and lots of other marine wildlife!