Olivia Ellman | M/V Kestrel | September 1st, 2026 | 2:00 pm
We had such a fun adventure to start the month today, finding beautiful conditions to watch whales and lots of other wildlife! Before departing this afternoon, we had a few reports of whales in Canadian waters and planned to check out some reports in the Strait of Georgia to start. We began heading north, and reached the northern part of San Juan Channel before we got another whale rumor in Rosario Strait… The water conditions were definitely more variable to the north, so we decided to take a chance and explore to the east in better water and have more of the adventure to locate this new report! We zoomed a bit south to head through the Wasp Islands and then along Orcas Island. Along the way, a bald eagle suddenly appeared flying right above us! Definitely one of the coolest looks at an eagle I’ve had out here. We continued on towards Obstruction Pass, and slowed down once we got into Rosario. Our report was of a few killer whales near Doe Bay, but we were unsure on number or how fast they had been travelling. While scanning for their dorsal fins, we spotted the much smaller dorsal fins of another tiny toothed whale.. Harbor porpoise! Suddenly, Captain Vaun pointed in the distance of the shoreline, and there we noticed a number of larger black dorsal fins. We got some closer looks in our binoculars, and noticed there was at least one male in the group along with some smaller individuals. A small yellowish/orange calf popped up in the mix, and as we gathered more clues, we realized we had found the T49As! The family was close to the shoreline, and soon we saw some faster direction changes and circling that indicated they were hunting. They continued this behavior, until we saw more forceful dives and circling… Even though we don’t always see their prey at the surface during this time, it’s likely they had finally caught their seal snack. We saw some tail slaps and a spyhop from one of them (my favorite behavior to see!) before they continued travelling into Obstruction Pass.
We watched them swim away, and stopped to view some seals hauled out on a rock nearby. From there, we continued down Rosario and spotted a bald eagle nest on Blakely Island. More porpoise were also swimming through the area, making for an exciting pathway back towards the harbor. We slowed again at Turn Rock to find the sea otter, looking especially cute wrapped up in some bull kelp. We took the scenic route around Turn Island, and then back into the harbor.
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/