Olivia Ellman | May 14th, 2026 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:30pm
We departed Friday Harbor today with hopes of sunshine and finding whales, and at least the whales came through for us! We traveled north up San Juan Channel, stopping at Green Point to see the Stellar's Sea Lions resting on the shoreline. Continuing into New Channel, we also viewed mouflon sheep along the hillside as well. We encountered some rain and winds, but nothing could deter us in our search.
As we rounded the western side of Spieden Island, we began to see some blows in the distance... and soon were viewing a humpback whale! With our telephoto lens, we were able to get a photo of the fluke as the whale went on a dive and photo ID'd this individual as Scuttle, a male that is part of the breeding population in Mexico. Scuttle was taking short dives in the area, and we got beautiful looks at his fluke on each dive. As we traveled south with him, we realized we were in the area of another humpback whale, photo ID'd as the famous Big Mama!
We approached the 100 yard limit towards Big Mama, and she began changing direction moving offshore. All of a sudden, her tail erupted from the water and we saw a big splash! She continued this tail lobbing/peduncle throwing a few more times, treating us to incredible looks at her power and beauty. We also heard her trumpeting during a few of her breaths at the surface, an interesting and more rare behavior to see.. Perhaps she was annoyed at Scuttle approaching her area? It was unclear the reason as she moved offshore, and then went back to diving as she traveled away. This was such an epic end to our whale encounters!
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