Anacortes Whale Watch

Highlights

Humpback Whale
Harbor Seals
Steller Sea Lion
Bald Eagle

September 1, 2025 | 9 AM and 1 PM Whale Watch

With early morning reports coming in from Roche Harbor, we set a course for the inner islands with high hopes of finding whales. The fog was milder this morning than it had been this week, meaning we could scan at least a half mile out as we worked our way across Rosario Strait. It began to clear as we exited Thatcher Pass and continued north towards Cayou Pass. We spied great blue herons along the shorelines of Wasp Pass, and sharp-eyed Serena found an osprey high within the trees. As we passed Jones Island, we had all eyes glued to the binoculars, knowing we were entering the zone the pod would still be within since its initial sighting. Working in tandem with fellow whale watchers, we searched the area thoroughly, traveling past Flattop, up to Boundary, down to White Rock and over to President's Channel while our friends searched other areas. During our search, we stopped at White Rock to visit with dozens of harbor seals, glaucous-winged gulls, a double crested cormorant and black turnstones. Sadly, the pod was not found, so we continued towards the outer islands to try our luck in a new region.

Our search of the outer islands was stunning, and took us past Sucia, Matia, Barnes and Clark islands. We spied many harbor porpoise dorsal fins breaking the surface, and salmon leaping above the glassy waters north of Orcas Island. As we entered Rosario Strait, we scanned across to Lummi Island before working our way down to the Cone Islands and along the eastern coastline of Cypress. We enjoyed passing many pods of porpoises, but sadly no larger cetaceans were to be found. We covered over sixty nautical miles together, enjoying incredible island views and spying many marine mammals and birds along the way. While whales were not in the cards this morning, we are grateful for the incredible conditions and wildlife encounters Mother Nature did treat us to.

We began our afternoon adventure with renewed hope, knowing the southern waters yet to be explored held new potential for sighting whales. With this in mind, we cruised south down Rosario Strait, stopping at Bird Rocks to visit with harbor seals, a large Steller sea lion, gulls, cormorants, black turnstones and more. This National Wildlife Refuge was bustling with life today. Captain Tyson also spied a mature bald eagle on the Davidson Rock marker, perched high above the flowing bull kelp forest.

We searched the calm waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca thoroughly, stopping at McArthur Bank where Serena spied an elusive minke whale and to pick up trash (a stray happy birthday balloon) from the water. We continued the search at Hein Bank, Coyote Bank, Constance Bank, Middle Bank, Salmon Bank, then returned to McArthur Bank where our good balloon karma finally kicked in. A humpback whale, CRC-16262 "Victory", was working the bait balls forming on the bank. She wowed us with several close looks then again with an incredible lunge through one of the bait balls from afar. It was an incredible display of strategy and power.

Our return trip home was smooth sailing, with sightings of common murres and harbor porpoise along the way.

- Sam