Olivia Ellman | M/V Kestrel | August 29th, 2026 | 2:00 pm
I was very excited to head out this afternoon because there were reports of a family of Bigg’s Killer Whales I’ve been waiting to see all summer! We departed Friday Harbor and caught up to this family just across San Juan Channel on the Shaw Island side, heading north. It was easy to spot this group of 4 travelling on the shoreline based on one individual, the oldest son named “Yelnats”… It was the T60 matriline! We have recently seen the middle T60 brothers Onca and Lynx who travel separately, but have not seen the mom with the other 3 siblings at all yet until today! I love this family for a number of reasons, but the naming theme (except Yelnats who is based being a lookalike for T123A Stanley) of scientific names of cats is especially cute. T60 Panthera (large cat genus) and her daughters Tigris (tiger) and Uncia (snow leapord) were right along side Yelnats as they explored the coastline, and we followed along as they meandered along the Wasp Islands and up towards Jones. At each intersection of islands and coastline, it seemed like they were in searching mode for a snack… At one point, we saw several direction changes and circling of a small rocky area, but they must not have found what they were looking for as they continued travelling. They continued this behavior up the east side of Jones, and then pushed off to cross the channel towards San Juan Island. We decided to depart from here to search for other wildlife and try to catch up with them again later.
We made it to White Rock to enjoy some time with the many harbor seals resting along the shoreline. Definitely puts into perspective what these whales were likely searching for along all the islands! We continued on towards the north side of Spieden, scanning for any other signs of whales or other wildlife along the way. We spotted a few bald eagles sitting in tree tops, and then continued around into Spieden Channel to search the south facing side of the island for anything else. There were many Fallow Deer along the hillside, a rarer sighting as we most often see just Moufflon Sheep. We noticed some activity in the skies and on the hillside further down the island, and it looked like there were bald eagles and vultures fighting over a carcass! We had to wait to check it out though because at the same time we also noticed the T60s were out ahead of us heading our way in Spieden Channel. Captain Vaun’s plan for the day went just as he hoped to get more looks at these whales on the way! We turned around and got some beautiful final looks at this group, hoping we would get lucky in case they finally found success in their hunting search… The family almost went to Sentinel Rock, another great seal area, but then they continued past so we departed the area from there. We still got to see some awesome action on land though, because we now had time to check out the eagle/vulture standoff we noticed earlier. We watched the eagle try to fly away with the carcass, drop it on the hillside, and then return to it to keep fending off the many vultures and another eagle that had showed up. After enjoying this crazy scene, we departed to make our way back to Friday Harbor. What a full day of wildlife!!
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/