September 8, 2026

Sep 8

Anacortes Whale Watch

Highlights

Humpback CRC-22840
Minke whale at Hein Bank
Glass calm seas
Lots of bird life

September 8, 2026 | 1 PM Whale Watch

We put on an exhaustive search today combing much of the Strait of Juan De Fuca, but it all ended being worth it in the end. Starting our day to the south we stopped at Bird Rocks to check out some harbor seals and watch the many different sea birds buzz around, including cormorants, gulls, and black turnstones. Continuing from there we received reports in Admiralty Inlet of a whale and we headed that direction. We covered the eastern banks of Juan De Fuca as we headed south and found hundreds of common murres. All though we heavily searched around Admiralty the report and search turned up nothing and we headed back out into the Juan de Fuca. Searching our way to Hein Bank we scored big by finding a humpback whale traveling east. It turned out to be CRC-22840 a calf belonging to BCX0470 Hecate who is a regular to these waters. We got many amazing looks before we had to wave goodbye and continue on. We hadn't made it very far from the bank when Captain Carl found us a large minke whale that was very cooperative for viewing. We had many good looks before continuing to enjoy the gorgeous afternoon on our way back to Anacortes. It was a perfect day to be on the water and conditions could not be nicer!

-Tyson