Olivia Ellman | M/V Osprey | Thursday August 7th, 2025 | 12:30 pm
Today was such a fun day as we spent the afternoon with a socializing group of two very different Bigg’s Killer Whale matrilines! When we left the harbor, we heard reports of killer whales near Victoria so we began heading south. We stopped by Goose Island to see lots of harbor seals resting on the shoreline, and then continued through Cattle Pass. At this point, the whales had been traveling steadily east across the Haro Strait so we continued around Cattle Point and followed the Haro along the San Juan Island coastline. Once we could see Lime Kiln Lighthouse in the distance, we also began to see a few boats ahead of us that had been watching the group of whales. It was very exciting as we approached the area and began to see their dorsal fins surfacing, especially a few extra large ones… I was so happy to see some familiar fins of some large males that I hadn’t seen in a little while, and soon enough it was very apparent that we were viewing the T18s Galiano and Spouter (and their mom) among the group! The T109As were also traveling with them, so there were a total of 9 killer whales in the area and they were very social with each other. The group was a bit split, but we soon noticed that 30 year old Galiano seemed to be hanging out with all of the females and younger kids while his brother Spouter (24 years old) was hanging out with 13 year old T109A4 Garrett. When I saw Garrett yesterday, he looked especially huge compared to the rest of his family, and considering his young age he is definitely extra large. But in comparison to the T18 brothers, two of the largest boys we see out here, we could definitely see he still has some growing to do. The group spent a lot of time at the surface, and even when they’d disappear on some longer dives they were never too far away. Even while steadily moving north, they changed directions randomly, splashed a bit at the surface, and one individual even displayed some type of aerial scanning/spyhopping behavior as they poked their chin up out of the water a few times. As they whales remained a bit spread out throughout the entire encounter, it was exciting seeing them surface at different times, and sometimes it was hard to pick which whales to focus on! The most interesting moment for me was when Galiano began rolling around at the surface among the T109As, and we got a brief glimpse of a sea snake! T109A Frio/Runaway just gave birth to a new calf this year (T109A8 Weiss), so the only realistic option for Galiano’s attention may be T109A5 Argyle, an 11 year old that has not been confirmed male or female. Perhaps the older Galiano (or as some passengers began to refer to him, Old G) was making some advances on this young whale, especially if Argyle is female, or he was just getting excited in the social setting with all these younger whales. Regardless of his intentions, it was a surprising twist in the encounter and we were very interested in what was going on beneath the surface. Soon after seeing this behavior, they continued traveling together as normal.
At this point, we were nearing Henry Island and the north side of San Juan Island and it was time for us to start leaving the whales behind. We saw lots of jumping salmon as one last fun bonus sighting, and picked up speed into Spieden Channel. I had so much on today’s trip getting to watch these two very different families interact, and I will be very curious if they continue to spend time together in the future or if this was a brief social encounter.