Levi Vandebunte | M/V Sea Lion | August 22nd, 2026 | 5:30pm
As Summer slowly comes to an end, the sun is beginning to set earlier and earlier. Because of this, our Sunset Tours are not able to run into our Fall season. This trip just so happened to be our final Sunset Tour of the season! I absolutely love these tours, and was excited to be working this one to hopefully go out with a bang! We were fortunate enough to leave the dock with a whale report quite close by. A family of Bigg's Killer Whales were moving North along the East shore of San Juan Island. We made our short transit there and were excited to see six black dorsal fins moving tight to shore. It was the T109As, a frequent visiting family to the Salish Sea! We watched them wrap around the corner and begin to move West along the North side of San Juan Island. Suddenly, they stopped at the edge of a kelp bed near the shore. They must have been feeling playful, because over the next 20 or so minutes we saw a TON of different behaviors from these whales. These included spyhops, kelping, tail slapping, rolling, headstands, and bubble blasts! These are all things that we do not normally see, so this was so exciting! Eventually the whales continued on their previous path pointing West. We then began approaching Roche Harbor and I began to remember that I had heard of this family entering harbors quite often. I personally had never seen this from a boat before, but I wondered if they'd choose to on this day. Sure enough, they turned left and began swimming into Roche Harbor just a few minutes later! They stayed to the outer parts, swimming just feet from some sailboats that were anchored in the deeper water! This was so cool to see. They eventually continued South and chose to swim down Mosquito Pass which is a small waterway that connects Roche Harbor to the West Side of San Juan Island. Just before we were about to leave, we noticed some thrashing and splashing as they approached a small rock formation. One of the whales had grabbed a Harbor Seal! At least a couple of whales began prey-sharing this fresh kill. They made quick work of it though, as they continued moving within just a couple of minutes. After watching the predation, we said goodnight to the T109As and departed. We travelled back down San Juan Channel and returned back to Friday Harbor. The whales must have known that it was the last Sunset Tour of the year and decided to make it a special one. I had so much fun on this trip!
The IDs and details of the six Killer Whales that we saw are as follows:
Bigg's Killer Whales (6):
T109A "Runaway" (F) b. 1990
T109A4 "Garrett" (M) b. 2012
T109A5 "Argyle" (?) b. 2014
T109A6 "Riley" (F) b. 2018
T109A7 "Wieland" (M) b. 2021
T109A8 "Weiss" (?) b. 2025
This group of passengers was so much fun! We thank them for choosing to spend their evening with us out on the water.
Wanting 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/