Lauren Tschirhart | June 5th, 2026 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30 pm
Last night was our first Roche Harbor sunset cruise of the season, aboard the M/V Sea Lion. I’d say we kicked off our sunset season with a bang, as we spent the evening observing a whopping 17 Bigg’s Killer Whales! My first major T-Party of the year. A T-Party is when you have three or more families of Bigg’s (or Transients, hence the “T”) Killer Whales traveling together. This T-Party was a huge shock to us, as these whales all linked up just minutes before our arrival. As we departed the dock at Roche Harbor, we had knowledge of a group of seven whales near Cypress Island. We began our tour by cruising southwest across San Juan Channel, aiming for Wasp Passage. We got great looks at the Orcas and Shaw ferry dock as we made our way towards Rosario Strait. We crossed Lopez Sound and putt putted through the narrow Pevine Pass, finally making it to Rosario. As we cruised towards Lummi, we got word from another captain that the group he was watching had suddenly multiplied. Right as we were getting on scene, the group of seven turned into a group of 17!
The T-Party was made up of four different matrilines; The T123’s, T124A4’s, T046B’s and T099’s. From a brand new calf, to a fully grown adult male, there were tons of whales in this mix. It was my first time getting to see little T046B8/ Pi, who is only a couple of months old. This calf was super rambunctious, breaching several times, seemingly having a playdate with the other youngsters in the group. We were feeling beyond blessed as we got to witness these four families socialize and display many different surface behaviors. From baby breaches, to big boy tail slaps, to head lunges galore, it was a sight to see! Some of the younger whales were grouped up, staying busy using a bird as target practice. My favorite part of the encounter was witnessing the three eldest boys in the group having an intimate party of their own. At one point T123A/ Stanley, T099C/ Barakat and T046B4/ Quiver were off at our bow, rolling around each other. Suddenly we got a glimpse of a very large, and very pink object poking out of the water. I’ll let you interpret what this certain pink appendage was… I’ll give you a hint, only the males have it, and it is often referred to as a sea snake or a pink floyd. These whales were making it incredibly hard to leave, but it was starting to get dark, so we waved goodbye to these incredible creatures and slowly departed. On our way back, Captain Gabe spotted a juvenile humpback feeding along the coastline of Blakely Island. It looked like this whale was flick feeding. Flick feeding is when a whale trashes its tail at the surface to corral prey, then lunges forward with its mouth open to consume it. A T-Party and a surprise humpback on the first sunset of this season? Truly too good to be true!