Lauren | M/V Osprey | Friday, August 8th, 2025 | 12:30 PM
Our Classic Whale Watch & Wildlife Tour departed Friday Harbor and headed north towards an exciting whale report. The fan favorites the T018’s have been out and about and we were stoked to hear they were back in our range today! There has been much debate on what to call this family of three, as industry professionals refer to them as both the T018’s and T019’s. The T018s is (or was) made up of three generations of orcas.
T018/Esperanza is the mother of T019/Nootka, but T019 was named before it became clear that she was the daughter of T018. This is why the numbering structure is different for this group. This is the case with several other families from the older generation that got their designations early in the identification process. T018/Esperanza is unfortunately presumed to be dead, as she has not been seen since late last summer. Therefore, there aren’t any whales with the designation T018 around any longer. Thus the debate stands… Do we continue to call them the 18’s to honor Esperanza, or do we move on to referring to them as the 19’s as that is the more accurate designation. Whatever you refer to them as, one thing that will never be up for debate is how iconic this family is. T019B/Gailano and T019C/Spouter have some of the most recognizable (and largest) dorsal fins in the population!
Our first stop on the tour today was to the wasp island group to take a look at a bald eagle that was perched on top of a navigational marker. We then made our way into Boundary Pass aimed for the northeast side of Stuart Island. On our way through Boundary we saw an insane amount of pink salmon jumping out of the water! Pink salmon have a two-year life cycle, and here in the Salish Sea the returns of pink salmon tend to be much larger in odd-numbered years, and the 2025 return did not disappoint. It’s been incredible watching these anadromous fish return to these waters. We spent the afternoon with T019/Nootka, T019B/Galiano and T019C/Spouter as the family of three surfaced together in a tight group. The lighting was perfect and I got some of my favorite photos of the season!.
On our way back to Friday Harbor we cruised down the eastside of Spieden Island and viewed some Mouflon Sheep hanging out by the waters edge.
Check out our SmugMug to see photos of all the wildlife from today’s trip at https://sanjuansafaris.smugmug.com/