Lauren | M/V Kestrel | Thursday, August 7th, 2025 | 2:00 PM
The T018’s are back, and they brought the T109A’s with them! This group of nine orcas were found traveling up the west side of San Juan Island. Since these whales were right in the neighborhood, the M/V Kestrel decided to hit some wildlife stops first. As we departed Friday Harbor we took a left and headed north in San Juan Channel. We quickly made our first stop as Captain Gabe spotted a bald eagle in the treeline off the eastside of San Juan Island. We admired this large bird of prey before continuing on our journey. We decided to head for the northeast side of Spieden Island to see if there were any critters in view. We witnessed several mouflon sheep scurrying along the rocky shoreline. We then went around the northside of Spieden and headed for the Haro Strait. We caught up with these whales just as they were making their way up the west coast of Henry Island. We were in contact with fellow Pacific Whale Watch Association captains before our arrival, and they notified us that the whales had been busy socializing!
Luckily for us, they were still surface active upon our arrival. Once we got on scene, we noticed that these whales had split up in two groups. T019C/Spouter and T109A4/Garrett were hanging as a duo, and the other seven were grouped up splashing around. We watched as these whales traveled tight to shore around the north side of Henry. I loved watching Spouter and Garrett surface together. Seeing a fully grown adult male next to a young sprouting one always allows for a unique perspective. When seeing a sprouting male amongst females, the young males always look huge. Seeing 13-year-old T109A4/Garrett look so small next to 24-year-old T019C/Spouter reminded me just how much growing Garrett still has to do!
Suddenly the socializing started to rev up! One of the whales in the group of seven was spending a lot of time swimming upside down, and T019B/Galiano was making swift movements circling them. Shortly after this encounter the T018’s and T109A’s had split off for the remainder of our tour. We decided to stick with the T018’s, which ended up being the right decision, as we witnessed several spyhops and taillobs from this group of three. We were lucky today as we got a lot of bonus whale time. These whales were literally leading us home! We departed the group right before they made their way into San Juan Channel. It felt so good to have both of these iconic families back in the interislands! Hopefully they stick around for awhile.