Olivia Ellman | M/V Kestrel | August 9th, 2026 |10:00 am and 2:00 pm
Another exciting adventure day on Kestrel! As is usual with our 10 am tour, when we departed the dock we didn’t have many sightings to work off of so we began heading north. Soon into our travels we heard of a shore report in Active Pass and the Strait of Georgia of possible Bigg’s Killer Whales, so we zoomed in that direction with the hopes of catching up. Luck was on our side because another vessel picked up the whales about 15 minutes before we arrived! We heard there were possibly 4 Bigg’s heading south, so we slowed our speed at a distance and joined the search as the other vessels were just getting in the zone as well. Before we even reached the 4 seen earlier, another vessel near us alerted us that they thought they had seen some other whales nearby… It turns out there were around 14 other Bigg’s right in our vicinity! We soon saw some black dorsal fins, and realized we were closest to a group of 5 or 6. With my binoculars, I could tell that these were some whales I know quite well and have seen scattered around the Salish Sea recently! Members of the T36/36B matriline were with T137A Jack! We stayed with this group and got beautiful looks in the calm waters. What an amazing surprise find! Eventually we had to begin to exit the area to begin our trek back to Friday Harbor, so we slowly made our way to Jorgenson Pass and weaved back south through the Gulf Islands. We looped our way back towards San Juan Island making a stop at White Rock along the way to see some harbor seals. For our afternoon trip, Captain Vaun and I were stoked to head back out to see what was happening with the big group of whales still making their way south along Saturna. By the time we got back out, the group had been split up and we reached some of the other individuals that had been spotted earlier. The T100s had joined up with the T36s and T137A and were heading towards Waldron Island. I wonder if the T100s were showing off their favorite summer hangout to these other whales! T100C Laurel and T137A Jack were traveling close together for much of our encounter, which was super sweet to see as they are both the same age, born in 2002. We watched them continue to make their way towards Waldron, and eventually were quite close to the shoreline and possibly going to President’s Channel. We slowly made our departure from here to go search for other wildlife, and soon were at Spieden Island where we found a great haul out spot of harbor seals and got to see a bald eagle. Moufflon Sheep were also along the hillsides, and after finding more bald eagles and seals we went back into San Juan Channel. Our final stop was to see the sea otter at Turn Rock before back to Friday Harbor. So many whales and other species today, I can’t wait to see where they all end up throughout the week! 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/