Olivia Ellman | M/V Kestrel | June 3rd, 2025 | 2:00 PM
We had quite the adventure on our afternoon Adventure Whale Watch today, full of lots of wildlife and exploration! We began by heading north up San Juan Channel, and quickly found a group of harbor seals near Yellow Island. As we continued north, we soon saw a few boats near Saturna Island and ended up among a group of three Bigg’s Killer Whales. This turned out to be three members of the T100 matriline, and they were slowly traveling east. We got great looks at them as they surfaced close together, and even though they had longer down times they still weren’t traveling very fast. A few times they surfaced closer towards our boat, giving us fantastic looks and letting us really see the difference in size between mom Hutchins (T100), her 23 year old son Laurel (T100C) and her youngest 11 year old Estrella (T100F). We saw a number of harbor porpoise in the area as well, which was another exciting sighting and a great way to compare the size of these different types of cetaceans. After some time with the group, we decided to give them space and continue our travels into Canada in search of some rumored humpback whales.
We made our way north among the Gulf Islands and soon were in the Strait of Georgia. We travelled around the larger body of water searching for any blows or other signs of activity, but had no luck. The clear skies and calm waters provided the perfect conditions for spotting, and even though we couldn’t find the humpbacks we had great views of Mt. Baker and the mainland towards Vancouver. We enjoyed a beautiful cruise through Active Pass, spotting multiple bald eagles and more harbor seals along the way, and got to really take in the Canadian islands before crossing back into Washington and making our way back towards Friday Harbor. The sunny weather and glassy waters made today’s adventure even more enjoyable as we took in the many different types of wildlife the Salish Sea supports. We can't wait to see what we might find next time on the water!