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Puget Sound Express

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Port Townsend, WA
Puget Sound Express

Your goal is to see whales and our family's goal is to show them to you. Orcas, humpbacks, gray whal See whales in the wild!

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Puget Sound Express has been operating guaranteed whale watching tours for more than 30 years, and in that time we have always endeavored to make your trip a lasting memory. Ours is a family-run business, with three generations of knowledge and caring at the ready. With thousands of departures over 30 years, our local knowledge is unmatched.

06/05/2025

Epic weather and whales right now in the Salish Sea! In our Port Angeles location, June has started off with a bang as we begin our summer schedule there of two trips per day. On Sunday and Monday all 4 excursions were treated to incredible sightings. The humpbacks have been steadily returning to our waters from their breeding grounds in the tropics, and we've been seeing more and more with each passing day (PA is particularly well-suited for humpback sightings), including our first mom and calf pair of the year. We also encountered multiple "T-Parties" - larger groups of transient (Bigg's) orcas and witnessed some very active socializing behaviors. - Naturalist Rachel R.

06/02/2025

Sea Lion Hunt, plus Indy rejoins the family! On May 31 we ran two trips onboard the Swiftsure. Both tours spent time with the T124A2 family of Bigg's orcas, and in the afternoon, the family was dispatching a sea lion in dramatic fashion, with much celebrating afterwards. On the morning tour, we spent time with the T65A family near Bremerton and for the first time in quite a while, the entire family was together. The independent minded "Indy" has been traveling solo as well as with other family groups for much of the spring; it was terrific to see him back with his home pod. Photos by Captain/Naturalist EJ.

05/31/2025

A perfect day on Friday. The T65A family of Bigg's orcas in Possession Sound. Mountains as far as the eye can see. Tufted Puffins, juvenile Bald eagles and an Elephant seal at Protection Island. We love this place!

05/28/2025

It's starting to feel like summer out here, folks - with terrific weather and many lovely whales! We're seeing loads of Bigg's orcas throughout the region, and we're thrilled to have migrating humpbacks and minke whales in the mix as well. One of our favorite humpbacks known as Scuttle is back, and we've also seen Strike, as well as Cerulean and Barracuda (who we last saw in 2022), AND the mother that started the entire humpback comeback in the Salish Sea - Big Mama with a new youngster in tow! (More on her to come...). In addition to whales, many of our trips have included sightings of elephant seals and tufted puffins. Speaking of...June marks the start of our dedicated Puffin Tours operating out of both Port Townsend and Edmonds. (Photo by Janine Harles)

05/22/2025

11 orcas, 3 grays, 1 rogue buoy, and shrimpers! It felt like we saw it all on Wednesday's 5/21 Edmonds half-day tour. 11 Bigg's killer whales (T124A2s, T124Ds, T100s, T49A2) were together north of Edmonds racing northbound before making a U-turn to take a siesta! Then we passed Sounder gray whale "Thidwick" (1:05 in video) who was traveling solo, before heading to Hat Island to catch Sounders "Earhart" and "Cascade" spyhopping like crazy (1:15 in video). Speaking of crazy, there were large amounts of shrimpers out on the water and we were grateful to be there to perform Sentinel actions - warning numerous boats to slow/stop in the presence of the grays (also sh*****ng :) Our crew also came upon a rogue buoy floating in the water, which we scooped up (2:19).

05/20/2025

It is rare for an orca's eye or teeth to be seen from a boat but our May 19 Edmonds excursion was lucky enough to see both! We found the T99 killer whale matriline where the youngsters T99D Puck and T99E Qwiin Qwiin oo Qwiila entertained themselves by chasing a rhinoceros auklet; likely just for fun or hunting practice as their diet is typically strictly marine mammals. At one point the commotion attracted a bald eagle that dove down as if to try to grab the auklet but then it seemed to abort the mission and banked hard away from the waters surface to fly off. In addition to some spectacular time with the T99s, the Edmonds day trip were also able to find 3 gray whales ( #56 Stardust, #543, & #531 Gretchen) and some wrestling Steller sea lions. Our Port Townsend half-day tour was also on-scene with the same whales (and eagle!).
Naturalist/Photographer Kyla Bivens

05/15/2025

The Salish Sea is simply glorious! So much wildlife and beauty. On 5/13, Swiftsure ventured west to visit humpback whale BCX1705 "Ocular" - but along the way found an outrageous amount of wildlife. Marvel at: yellow-billed loon, sea otter, juvenile elephant seal, tufted puffins, eagles, AND 3 different lighthouses (Race Rocks, Dungeness and Point Wilson.) Rain or shine, it's just stunning out there, folks. Thanks to Janine Harles Photography for her excellent photos!

05/14/2025

Our first weekend of the year in Port Angeles is officially in the books, and what a great way to get things started! Saturday we were lucky enough to stumble upon the T65A pod of Bigg's orcas less than 10 min from the dock, and Sunday we had amazing looks at three humpbacks in glassy calm seas. Both trips also got to explore Race Rocks Ecological Reserve along the Vancouver Island coastline, where we saw all 4 of our local pinniped species (harbor seals, elephant seals and Steller sea lions and California sea lions) as well as a sea otter and tons of birds. We're so excited to be back out on the water and cannot wait to show you more of the incredible wildlife here in the Salish Sea this season! Humpbacks - orcas - minke whales - gray whales - our waters are humming right now for all of our departure locations! - Naturalist Rachel R.

05/12/2025

Recently Cascadia Research Collective announced the gender reveals for some of our beloved "Sounder" gray whales! Over the years we've had some fun speculating about the gender for some of the "unknown" whales judging by their size and behaviors, and now we know the truth. The gender reveal that didn't surprise any of us was that CRC-2362 'Thidwick' is a female, because of her obvious large size (females average larger than males). The biggest surprise may have been that CRC-2246 'Azulao' is also a female, because she always seemed to be a bit on the small side. Cascadia Research Collective also revealed that CRC-356 'Carson' is a male, and CRC-2255 is a female. The genders of the gray whales were determined by lab analysis of hormone levels present in biopsy samples from their blubber and skin. Many of you have seen these whales on our trips and we thought you would be excited to hear the news just like we were. Photographer/ Naturalist Bart Rulon Bart Rulon Art & Photography Bart Rulon Wildlife

05/09/2025

The Edmonds team has had some great luck in the last 2 weeks with orcas from 10 different matrilines traveling around the area. Here are some of the favorites from encounters with T36A1s, T99B, T37A3, T65A5, T124As, T100Bs, T100s, T23Cs, T124Ds, and T65Bs. Puget Sound also still has the Sounders gray whales hanging around and now the minke and humpback whales are starting to trickle in for their summertime feeding!
All photos taken with a Canon R series and 400mm lens then cropped. Photos by naturalist/photographer Kyla Bivens

05/05/2025

We have been seeing a large mixed group of Bigg's killer whales a lot lately in Puget Sound. The T100B pod, T100E, T124A pod (including the T124A4s) are the main group, but for a while T49A2 was traveling with them too. Here is a slow motion video of a sublime experience we had with these pods swimming closely together when they were down in southern Puget Sound on April 26. This video has no sound. Photographer/ Naturalist Bart Rulon Bart Rulon Art & Photography Bart Rulon Wildlife

05/04/2025

Port Angeles - let's go see some whales! We're excited to start our 2025 Port Angeles Whale Watching season on May 10. Our half-day tour departs from Port Angeles Wharf downtown, and from there we head into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, visiting whale hot spots on both sides of the Strait, including Victoria, B.C. and Dungeness Spit.

Port Angeles is our western-most departure location (the gateway to Olympic National Park), which puts it in the perfect position to see humpback whales, in addition to Bigg's killer whales. We can't wait to head to Race Rocks Ecological preserve to see Ollie the resident sea otter - we hope you can join us.

https://www.pugetsoundexpress.com/port-angeles-half-day-whale-watching-tour/

Address

227 Jackson Street
Port Townsend, WA
98368

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm
Saturday	9am - 5pm
Sunday	9am - 5pm

Website

http://PugetSoundExpress.com/

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