Kate Spencer

KATE SPENCER currently owns, operates and is chief naturalist for Fast Raft Ocean Safaris, a small six-person RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat) whale watch operation. She runs trips primarily out of Moss Landing on Monterey Bay. Kate started leading whale-watching tours on Monterey Bay as a naturalist in 2001 and began managing operations at Fast Raft in 2014.

Captain Kate was born in Washington, DC and grew up in nearby Arlington, Virginia. Her well rounded, liberal arts education included studies in biology, studio art and comparative religion. She holds a degree in organismal biology with a studio art minor from Smith College in Massachusetts. 

After graduating, she worked at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in DC as a scientific illustrator. Kate became very interested in tuna while preparing an exhibit illustration piece for the Smithsonian.  She came to Monterey because of the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the near-by Stanford Hopkins Marine Station, to learn more about these charismatic fish. Originally here to work for three weeks, her stay soon stretched into five months. During that time Kate met a number of ‘whale people’ and signed up to go to Alaska to do whale research the following summer. There she participated in humpback whale field research with the Alaska Whale Foundation.

On her return to California in 2000, she got off the boat in San Francisco and has been in the Monterey area ever since. With Monterey as her base, Kate has shared her knowledge and used her skills in various whale-focused communities in both the northern and southern hemispheres.

As a naturalist, Kate has guided small boat encounters with the friendly gray whales of Baja California, lectured on cruise ships on the Inside Passage, and driven Zodiacs on Antarctic tour expeditions.

Kate’s photographic data has been instrumental in helping build the Happywhale.com citizen science whale tracking site.She is also on the advisory board of California Whale Rescue and a first responder for entangled whales.