Washington’s fin whale records all hug salt water, from Whatcom County and the San Juan Islands south through King, Pierce, and Kitsap, and out to Clallam County on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. These are coastal counties, and the whale they document is an open-ocean animal seen only occasionally from shore.
The second-largest animal on Earth
Only the blue whale outgrows it. A fin whale can exceed 70 feet and is built for life in deep water beyond the continental shelf, lunge-feeding on krill and small schooling fish at speed. Most Washington sightings come from boats or from coastal vantage points along the Olympic Peninsula, near the wild shoreline of Olympic National Park and the waters off Dungeness and Willapa national wildlife refuges.
Passing through, not residing
Fin whales shift seasonally between high-latitude feeding grounds and lower-latitude wintering areas, and the eastern North Pacific population travels along the outer coast rather than into inland seas. Washington’s records fall between January and May, consistent with animals moving past the state rather than taking up residence in Puget Sound.
Status in Washington
The fin whale is native to Washington’s marine waters, and USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous. The IUCN lists the species as Vulnerable globally, and it is protected as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, a legacy of twentieth-century industrial whaling.
Full species profile
