Olivia Ellman | M/V Osprey | June 8th, 2026 | 12:30 pm
Wind, waves, and a bit of rain joined us on our afternoon classic tour as we searched for whales in the Salish Sea today. We began by heading east, scanning the interisland route. Even though it’s cold in the wind, I love scanning for exhalations in the grey backdrop. We reached Rosario Strait and spotted the blow of a humpback a mile away ahead of us. While we had some killer whale reports we were making our way towards, this was a fun surprise! We approached the area and waited to see the whale again… Suddenly it surfaced about 100 yards away off our left side, and immediately went on another dive heading our way! This whale had been photo ID’d as Gretzky, and he seemed to be zig zagging south in Rosario as he was likely feeding on these dives. We waited in the same spot with our engines off, and a few minutes later Gretzky surfaced again on our right side, now parallel to us. We got one last look at another beautiful shallow fluking dive, and then continued on towards our other report.
We neared the south end of Cypress Island, and made a quick stop to see a Stellar Sea Lion resting on a red can. While in this area, we began to see exhalations from killer whales ahead! This was a group of 4 Bigg’s Killer Whales known as the T123s – one of my favorite families to see out here! The grey weather also always make them stand out as their white patches seem extra stunning to me. We got incredible looks at this group as they slowly traveled west, crossing Rosario and heading back the way we had come from. The rain began to pick up a bit as we ended our encounter with our whales, traveling back to Friday Harbor. We all warmed up a bit in the cabin and learned about our photo ID process for both killer whales and humpbacks; it’s not every day we get to see two species!
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/