Anacortes Whale Watch

Highlights

Bigg's killer whales (T65Bs, T65 & T63, T75Bs, T77D, T137s, T46B1s, T46C2)
Harbor porpoises
Seal lions
Tufted puffins

July 6, 2026 | 10 AM and 3 PM Whale Watch

What a morning! As we left the dock to begin our adventure, we heard word of orcas to the south, so we let the Olympic Mountains guide us across the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Seas were calm as we cruised through Rosario Strait and down to Smith Island, making it easy to spy every rhinoceros auklet, harbor porpoise and gull dotting the horizon. A hazy layer from the fires burning throughout Washington hung in the air, making the Olympic Mountains look like something out of a painting. This served as a stunning, and unique, setting for our whale encounter.

Just north of Protection Island, we met up with a large group of Bigg's Killer Whales. Reviewing our photos from the encounter surprised us with the presence and absence of certain whales. Therefore, we've compiled a comprehensive list of all confirmed whales and those that may have been present but lack photographic confirmation (see list below). Jack and Birdsall were quite rowdy, tail slapping, cartwheeling, and chasing each other around. Chainsaw was sticking close to his mother Whidbey, and the rest of the matriarchs and young whales were tightly grouped a bit further to the south.

On the return cruise home, we stopped at a Partridge Bank navigational buoy to visit with both California and Steller sea lions hauled out there. A California male was being particularly showy. We also had the chance to stop at Smith Island and search for puffins! We found a little tufted puffin swimming along the edge of the extensive bull kelp forest, and watched a pigeon guillemot surface with lunch clutched in its beak! It was an incredibly rich day on the water, and an orca encounter to remember! - Sam

We headed out this afternoon with a good report coming in just south of Lopez island. We did not waste time getting down there and soon found ourselves on scene with the T46B1s and T46C2. These Bigg's killer whales were going off and being extremely social. We watched for over 45 minutes as they threw the youngest whale Tashi into the air over and over again and it was absolutely amazing to see. Soon Tide and Tsakani were also breaching and joining in all the rough housing. At one point they swam right over to the boat and we watched with our engines shut down as they passed us in the blink of an eye and again began to rough house in the distance. It was a phenomenal sight to see and we were so lucky to time it the way we did. As we left the killer whales were back into travel mode and we headed down to Smith Island where we found a tufted puffin as well as a bald eagle. We cruise north from there up to the east side of Lawson reef and checked out three Steller sea lions that were hauled out on the navigational marker. We made our way home after that and knew we had just experienced something rare and amazing.

-Tyson