Anacortes Whale Watch

Highlights

Bigg's killer whales (T77C, T77E, & T65A5)
Steller sea lions
Harbor seals

July 17, 2026 | 8 AM, 1 PM and 5 PM Whale Watch

8 AM

After a light morning drizzle, we set off to search of early morning reports near Guemes Island. It didn't take captain Carl long to spot a dorsal fin close to shore along Guemes, and we slowly approached to investigate. It took a bit of teamwork, but we were eventually able to ID T77C Neftali and T77E Misneach! This Bigg's killer whale sibling duo was busy hunting when we first arrived and we saw a few mini headstands and tail slaps. After they'd finished breakfast, they got into a travel pattern and we parted ways with them to search more water to the north. At Sinclair, we found a few Steller sea lions lounging on a navigational marker with some cormorants above them keeping them company. After our visit here, we returned to Neftali and Misneach. This pair had entered stealth mode in Bellingham Channel, and it took a moment to reacquire them due to their long down times. After a moment, we spotted some blows coming from the Cone Islands and scooted over to check it out. These whales had made a complete zag from where we'd last seen them, and were now swimming in and around the islands as terrified harbor seals looked on from the shoreline. As we watched the whales, we also got to check out the seals more closely, including a mom pup pair. It seemed these whales had found a second breakfast as we noted some circling behavior and moonwalking, as well as a tail slap and a spy hop off in the distance as we were approaching! After spending some more time with these guys, we slowly departed and cruised home. Such a lovely morning exploring the Salish Sea!

1 PM

We started off our trip today heading on the backside of Guemes Island. We heard our whales from the morning were on the move heading towards Lummi Island quickly. So we decided to head straight there and we were happy we did! We got to spend lots of quality time with this active brother and sister duo, Neftali T77C and T77E Misneach. We saw them splashing and smacking their tails, spy hopping and even wrapped in their prey's intestines. It was pretty crazy, natural geographic uncut for sure! We quickly realized they were hunting and eating while on the move. Eventually we had to depart and head back to port, but we were happy to see Harbor seals and stellar sea lions on our cruise home back behind Guemes Island. It was an action packed afternoon with good wildlife karma!

5 PM

What a beautiful evening it was! We headed off the dock and with the news that the orcas we were with the past two trips were now out of our zone, we decided to head South! None of the crew had been able to search to the South for the past few days due to conditions and fog, so we were so happy to see flat calm waters and gorgeous views as we made our way towards the South end of Lopez Island! We did a slow down between Lopez and Castle Island and another at Whale Rocks where we got to see some dueling Stellar Sea Lions! We got word of a lone male Killer Whale not too far ahead so we made our way towards Friday Harbor and met up with T65A5 Indy! Indy was cruising along when all of a sudden we got to see an unexpected breach! It was amazing! Eventually we had to make our way back towards Anacortes and got views of an early sunset. -Clare