Anacortes Whale Watch

Highlights

Triple header!
Humpback WA park
Minke Partridge Bank (Trotsky II)
T49A1 eastern bank area
Stellers in bird rocks, harbor seals, birds

September 21, 2026 | 1 PM Whale Watch

Triple Header!

Today's trip lucked into encounters with three different whale species: a humpback, minkes and a Bigg's killer whale. The fun started as we rounded the coastline of Washington Park and crew spied an exhalation amidst the current lines. It was such a small blow, we weren't initially sure what caused it... until gorgeous flukes lifted high above the ripples and sunk gracefully back beneath the surface. No mistaking that for anything but a humpback! It turned out to be a new visitor to the area, a little two-year-old humpback first sighted in Glacier Bay Alaska in 2024 by the name of SEAK-2782.

Hearing reports of more activity to the south, we let the Olympic Mountains guide us towards Partridge Bank. Conditions were glassy and the sun was shining bright, so bright that a minke whale's exhalation was brilliantly illuminated as it plowed through a bird mill. That gave us pause, it's rare to see that notable of an exhalation from a minke, but sure enough it was none-other-than beloved minke "Trotsky II", a whale who has been returning to the Salish Sea since at least 2013. They were zigzagging all over the place amongst hundreds of common murres and gulls, making their movement a bit difficult to track, so we continued on our search for other reports nearby.

Our guests were on it today with the whale sightings, and before long they'd spied a tall dorsal fin on the horizon. It was Bigg's killer whale "Noah" T49A1. This lone male seemed to be behaving erratically at first, but the longer we watched it became clear that there was a definite pattern to his unique swimming style. Noah would surface several times in a tight circle, allowing for looks at every angle of his impressive dorsal fin. He would then face northwest and take several rhythmic breaths before diving down and booking it onward (as evident by the rapidly forming fluke prints). This pattern repeated itself every five minutes or so throughout the encounter and left us with so many questions about what was going through his mind. We also caught a brief glimpse of a second minke whale while on scene with Noah.

The cruise home was scenic and smooth sailing. We passed bird mills and harbor porpoises as we worked our way towards the towering peak of Kulshan. We made a finale wildlife stop at Bird Rocks, where we found black oyster catchers, black turnstones, cormorants, gulls and many dozing harbor seals. We'd heard growling while viewing the west side of the islands, and upon rounding the corner we found the source of the noise. Several Steller sea lion bulls were hauled out and drying in the sun. Unfortunately, one clearly had a flasher stuck in its mouth, so we reported the gear to our local marine mammal stranding response team in hopes that they might be able to help the pinniped.

What a memorable afternoon on the water.
Sam