Olivia Ellman | M/V Osprey | October 5th, 2026 | 1:30 pm
October has already been full of so many fun whale sightings, even with foggy mornings and cooler temperatures. While it looked quite foggy even when we left the dock this afternoon, we started out incredibly lucky with a whale report not far outside the harbor! Across the channel along Shaw Island, the T49As and two members of the T50 matriline, T50B1 and T50D, were making their way north along the shoreline. We made our way slowly into their vicinity, spotting the many black dorsal fins in the distance as we approached towards 200m. The group of 8 was a bit split, and we had one individual offshore of the rest that we could identify as T50B1 based on the dorsal fin. The rest of the whales were tight to the shoreline, so we followed along continuing to view T50B1 at our closer range for the time being. Soon, we noticed the whales had picked up some speed and then all joined together. From here we could view more of the 49As a bit closer, and they all began circling and taking more forceful dives… It seemed that they had grabbed a snack and were prey sharing! As they continued circling, we noticed some birds swooping in to look for any scraps, and at one point T49A5 “Nebula” did a small spyhop in the midst of everything. Once they seemed to be moving on, we decided to also leave the area and continue north in search of other wildlife.
We made our way to the northern part of San Juan Channel, and explored near the Cactus Islands. There was a report of some possible humpback whales in the area, and soon enough we spotted an exhalation! From afar, we saw the whale go on a fluking dive, so once we made our way closer into the area we then waited for the next breath. This juvenile humpback was circling in this area, and with all the bird activity it seemed like there must be lots of food for this whale here. Humpbacks love small schooling fish in this area, so searching for bird activity near bait balls is a great way to help locate whales. As we watched for the whale’s next move, we noticed some of the birds take off in one area… I suspected our whale might come up in that area, but didn’t expect to see this humpback come up lunge feeding! This was the first time I had seen this behavior in this region, so I was very excited we got to witness this type of feeding behavior! The whale continued circling the area and we got to see some more fluking dives before we began to depart. What a lucky encounter!
We turned back south to explore near Spieden, and as we rounded Green Point we noticed that the Bigg’s Killer Whales we had seen earlier had made their way into Spieden Channel. We decided to get some last bonus looks at the group, so we slowed down once again and saw the 49As and T50 relatives back in travel mode. Spieden Island looked surprisingly green today on the usually dry looking hillside, so this made for a beautiful backdrop to the whales. We followed along for a bit, until we had to make our way back east. We cruised closer to Spieden to get some better looks at the many Moufflon Sheep, Fallow Deer, and few Sika Deer out in the greenery. This island is definitely one of my favorites to see change in each season, and Fall is definitely quite beautiful out here. We made our way back into San Juan Channel and Friday Harbor, re-entering the fog that still lingered in 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/