Lauren Tschirhart | June 28th, 2026 | M/V Osprey | 12:30 pm
After hearing we had two rare visitors in town, I couldn’t have been more excited to get out on the water. T128/ Floatsam and his presumed younger brother T125A/ Jetsam are two adult male Bigg’s Killer Whales who spend a majority of their time in the waters of Southeast Alaska. We only get to see this iconic duo a handful of times a year. T125A/ Jetsam has an extremely recognizable dorsal fin, as there is a large circular notch located halfway up the trailing edge of the fin. These two boys have another presumed older brother T127, who is often found swimming with matriarch T125. T128/ Floatsam and T125A/ Jetsam are not known to associate with T127 or T125.
We took an inter-island cruise through Upright Channel, eventually making our way around the north side of Lopez Island. We then cruised south towards the sound and slowed our vessel down as we noticed several Pacific Whale Watch Association (PWWA) vessels stopped in the distance. They let us know that these boys went on a deep dive, and they weren’t sure where they were gonna pop up next. After a few minutes passed we finally got eyes on these whales as they popped up at our 1 o’clock. We turned our vessel and slowly followed them north. Most of the time we were on scene with these boys they were on different dive cycles. Which was pretty cool to witness. That meant that a whale was up at the surface almost the entire time we were on scene! This is something that doesn’t happen often. Usually when whales are grouped up, their dive cycles will be synced, so there are intervals of time where there are no whales visible.
We departed these whales and headed for the north side of Shaw Island. We then cruised between Jones and Orcas Island, stopping near Jones to look at some harbor seals swimming near a rocky outcrop. Next we headed north into Boundary Pass and got a glimpse of several harbor porpoise swimming around. We then made our way back into San Juan Channel and headed back to Friday Harbor.
Want more information about the Pacific Whale Watch Association? See https://www.pacificwhalewatchassociation.com/
Want to see more photos from our trips? Visit our SmugMug page at: https://sanjuansafaris.smugmug.com/