Olivia Ellman | M/V Osprey | September 19th, 2026 | 12:30 pm
Our afternoon became incredibly exciting when we heard reports of a famous Bigg’s Killer Whale duo in our area right before we left the dock. While getting to see any whale is an exciting day, one of my favorites to spend time with is one of the most recognizable individuals in our population… T63 Chainsaw! Chainsaw and his equally as iconic mom T65 Whidbey II had been found near East Point on Saturna Island and were heading south, so we set out north in the hopes of getting to see them. We meandered through some of the Wasp Islands, making our way towards White Rock where we found some harbor seals and lots of double crested cormorants hanging out on the island. We continued on west of Waldron Island, and then slowed our speed as we were nearing the vicinity of our whales. Any time I’ve seen this pair, they are usually spread out quite a bit and today was no different. Whidbey was travelling further east of us where another PWWA vessel was, and we knew that Chainsaw was somewhere closer to us so we wanted to take our time and wait to see where he was travelling. We saw Whidbey surfacing further in the distance, and after a few minutes of waiting and suspension building, we saw Chainsaw surface a bit south of us! He was generally trailing his mom’s path, so we watched him continue in that direction. We followed along at a distance, and noticed that the two seemed to be slowly working towards converging together. On one longer down time, we saw a few harbor porpoise surfacing in the midst of where the whales might be… While it was unclear if the killer whales were interested in this potential prey, we did see a few cool behavior changes right after this! The pair converged together, slowed their speed, and began to somewhat circle around. We witnessed some disturbances at the surface while they were underneath, potentially indicating some type of hunting activity or even prey sharing. We didn’t see too much speed at any point from them, so it’s possible they could have been stealthily working together and are just such an efficient team, or they just slowed down to check something out. After this change in activity, they resumed their slow travel side by side heading west. We enjoyed our last looks as they swam further away; until we meet again Chainsaw and Whidbey!
We worked our way towards the Cactus Islands and the north side of Spieden, noticing lots of bird activity along the islands. We checked out some more seals, a bald eagle nest, and then continued west before turning into Spieden Channel to explore the south side of the island. There appeared to be some Sika Deer travelling along the treeline, and then we noticed lots of Fallow Deer as well. This species is so beautiful with their white spots, and we saw a buck and lots of other younger ones grazing. There were also Moufflon Sheep further along the hillside, completing our check list of all three non native species. As we continued we noticed a bald eagle in a tree, a somewhat rare sighting this time of year! Moving into Fall, many eagles head inland to follow salmon runs, so we typically see less in the area. After sighting more harbor seals on the shoreline, and lots more Fallow Deer and Moufflon Sheep, we picked up some speed and made our way back towards Friday Harbor.
Want to see more photos from our trips? Visit our SmugMug page at: https://sanjuansafaris.smugmug.com/
More information about the Pacific Whale Watch Association: https://www.pacificwhalewatchassociation.com/