Lauren Tschirhart | July 24th, 2026 | M/V Kestrel | 10:00 am
Bigg’s Killer Whale matriline the T100’s is a family that frequents the inter-islands of the Salish Sea. For whatever reason, they have been spending an insane amount of time in Boundary Pass this summer. There is clearly something appealing about the waters around Waldron Island. Boundary Pass is the large body of water just south of Saturna Island. There are several different channels and passageways that intersect at Boundary, allowing for an immense amount of current exchange. This makes Boundary Pass extremely nutrient rich. Maybe that is one of the reasons this family loves this area so much? Our 10:00 am Adventure Tour departed Friday Harbor and headed north in San Juan Channel. We were immediately excited because we got word that the T100’s were hunting! As we got on scene, it became clear that they were prey sharing. These three whales were circling each other, when suddenly we saw one bring their tail fluke and peduncle fully out of the water. They then went down on a much longer dive, and hadn’t been seen for several minutes. They popped up a bit further away, so we slowly started to motor towards them. As we made our way a bit closer, T100C/ Laurel shocked us by breaching clear out of the water! This 24-year-old male breached three times in a row. Although I’ve probably spent more time with this family than any other this summer, I had yet to see a member of the T100s breach this season. I was stoked, and the action wasn’t over. Just a couple minutes later we witnessed one of the whale's spyhop! We ended this encounter on a high note, and decided to go do some other wildlife viewing. We departed these whales and made our way over the north side of Spieden Island. Making a stop at Sentinel Rock. This rocky outcrop is a well known harbor seal haul out site. We got great looks at these shiny rock sausages before making our way over towards Roche Harbor. Two other Bigg’s Killer Whales had been picked up heading west in Spieden Channel, so we decided to get a quick look at them. The whales were identified as brother sister duo T038C/ Borrowman and T038E/ Hocker. The T038’s are not a matriline I am very familiar with, so I was really excited to see them. We hung out with this duo as they headed towards Battleship Rock. They started transiting into a shallow reef, filled with bull kelp, so we took this opportunity to wave goodbye to these whales and cruised back towards Spieden Island. We finished our tour by observing bald eagles and turkey vultures feed on a muflon sheep carcass.