Olivia Ellman | M/V Osprey | September 27th, 2026 | 1:30 pm
Being on the water today felt like the most stunning Fall day of the season, with perfect visibility across the water and to the mountains. We ended up having a beautiful encounter with Bigg’s Killer Whales right near San Juan Island, as well as finding so many other animals out enjoying the sunshine! When we left Friday Harbor, we knew of a report of some whales in the Haro so we began by heading north and taking a turn west through Spieden Channel. We spotted a bald eagle and harbor porpoise along the way, and as we turned south to follow along Henry Island we soon saw some exhalations and dorsal fins tight to the shoreline. There was a group of 4 Bigg’s Killer Whales, split into two pairs. The first pair was easy to spot from their massive dorsals, and we could tell just by looking at them that this was T19B Galiano and T65A3 Amir! Galiano’s brother and mom, T19C Spouter and T19 Nootka, were not far behind also making their way up the shoreline. We’ve seen the T19s quite a bit this season, but it was a fun surprise to see that Amir was travelling with them today. Galiano and Amir seemed quite friendly, as they travelled side by side and even rolled around at the surface together! We watched this behavior continue, before they were joined by Spouter and Nootka and all picked up some speed along the kelp filled shoreline. With a few direction changes and circling we wondered if they were searching for a meal, but soon they continued along in between Henry and Battleship Island. Watching the three boys travel next to each other was such an incredible sight to see, and Nootka definitely looked small in comparison! As they continued into Spieden Channel, Nootka and Galiano were travelling further ahead as Amir was now hanging out closer with Spouter. As more of a lone male, I wondered how Amir was feeling spending time with these similar aged boys… He has an older brother and multiple younger siblings that he isn’t always associating with, so it was definitely interesting to watch him socialize with some other brothers.
Right before we departed, we noticed something else surfacing in the vicinity of Spouter and Amir.. A Stellar’s Sea Lion! We waited to see if there would be some type of surface interaction, but the boys didn’t seem to be interested in pursuing the sea lion and it disappeared after a few breaths swimming away from the whales. We slowly made our way off scene from the whales, but continued to watch them swim east. From here we turned towards the Spieden shoreline to search for other wildlife, and we found many different species! A group of harbor seals was resting on the shoreline, and we watched them swim around and haul out on the rocks. We also spotted some harlequin ducks, my favorite bird to find this time of year, as well as a kingfisher flying along the shore. Up on the hillside, we spotted more bald eagles in the trees and some beautiful Fallow Deer and Moufflon Sheep along the treeline. We even saw a huge Fallow buck and a big ram! Our Spieden search ended when we reached Green Point, and from here we continued south into San Juan Channel. We saw the same group of whales again from afar as they were now travelling south along San Juan Island, and made our way back to 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/