Olivia Ellman | M/V Kestrel | July 10th, 2025 | 2:00 PM
When we left the dock, we started off with our original plan to head south to catch up with some whale reports. As we began traveling south in San Juan Channel, we quickly changed our course to the north as the whales we were planning to find were reported traveling much more quickly north from the west side of San Juan Island. We decided to head around the island that way to increase our chances of catching up, so the adventure began heading up towards Spieden Channel. Once we were a bit closer to these reports, we decided to go search for a humpback whale near Stuart Island. We neared Turn Point, and soon spotted some blows in the distance! This humpback had been identified as an individual known as Poptart, a female that was the 2016 calf of Big Mama! Poptart was definitely showing off for us as we were treated to a number of beautiful fluking dives. After watching her for some time at the surface taking these short dives, we soon departed, leaving her to continue her travels north. There were still other whales to search for, and the original report we had hoped to catch up with were making their way towards us from the south!
We traveled a few miles south, and soon caught up with other boats that were viewing a family of Bigg’s Killer Whales! This matriline was identified as members of the T75s, including T75 Kidney, her son T75A Stone, one of her daughters T75C Bam-Bam and her calf. The group was first slowly traveling north along Henry Island, making their way to Spieden Channel. We watched them make their way through the channel, getting great looks at the massive T75A! This was my first time seeing him, and he is definitely one of the largest males in the population. We noticed the whales began spreading out a little and taking some longer dives, and wondered what they might be up to as they approached a small island with lots of harbor seals on it… Suddenly they – quite literally – jumped into action when one of the whales leapt out of the water! The group was surrounding the island, and we could assume that they were hunting for a seal. They continued making fast direction changes, and we saw some small splashes at the surface as they hunted. Pretty quickly the whales grouped up all together and slowed down, so the hunt was over and prey sharing began. After a little longer, they continued slowly traveling east, seeming to be resting after all the activity and meal time. We took that as our sign to also slowly make our exit from the area and begin traveling back towards Friday Harbor. What an exciting, whale filled afternoon!