Lauren Tschirhart | July 4th, 2026 | M/V Osprey | 12:30 pm
Happy 250th Birthday America! We ironically spent our 4th of July watching whales in British Columbia! The aroma of hot dogs and bbq filled the air as we departed Friday Harbor Marina. The holiday vibes were high from the start, as the first thing we spotted after entering San Juan Channel was a bald eagle. The bald eagle is the National Bird of the United States of America! How fitting. Did you know that Ben Franklin originally wanted the National Bird to be the hard working wild turkey. That would make Thanksgiving pretty awkward…
We continued north and made our way into Spieden Channel, making a stop at Sentinel Rock to view a slew of hauled out harbor seals. We departed the seals and headed northwest crossing the Haro Strait into Canadian Waters. We knew of a group of 12 Bigg’s Killer Whales that were heading east in Satellite Channel. By the time we got on scene this group had split up. We slowed down near the Swartz Bay Ferry Terminal and started scanning around. We knew the group had split, but not all 12 whales had been reacquired. A few minutes later we were greeted by 6 dorsal fins surfacing in the distance at our 1 o’clock. The whales we spotted were members of the group the T109A’s. The designation of these whales are as follows:
- T109A/Frio/Runaway — female, born in 1990
- - T109A4/Garrett— male, born in 2012
- - T109A5/Argyle — born in 2014
- - T109A6/Riley — female, born in 2018
- - T109A7/Wieland — male, born in 2021
- - T109A8/Weiss — born in 2025
We hung out with these whales as they headed south towards Sidney Island. We eventually made our way back into U.S. waters and returned to the dock. Happy 4th of July!
Want more information about the Pacific Whale Watch Association? See https://www.pacificwhalewatchassociation.com/
Want to see more photos from our trips? Visit our SmugMug page at: https://sanjuansafaris.smugmug.com/