Olivia Ellman | M/V Kestrel | July 17th, 2026 | 2:00 pm
Today’s Adventure Tour set some milestones for my season… My first time being the first one to spot whales! This afternoon was full of surprises, and has to be one of my top trips of the season. We departed Friday Harbor with plans to head north where we had reports of Killer Whales across the Canadian border. As we began to pick up speed out of the harbor, I suddenly spotted dorsal fins about 300m off our starboard side!! A group of Bigg’s Killer Whales was heading towards Friday Harbor that no one else had reported for the day. We immediately slowed down and stopped to get our bearings on the number of whales and where they might be heading. There seemed to be 4 individuals, one with a larger dorsal fin. As we watched a few surfacings, we wondered if it could be the 65Bs… I have been waiting to see this family all season! The worked their way further towards the harbor, heading in towards the outer docks before continuing on towards Friday Harbor Labs. With these views, we could confirm this was the 65Bs. This was incredibly exciting to see all 4 of them together, as just yesterday 65B2 had been reported as stranded between Smith and Minor Islands in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Live strandings are very dangerous for the health of whales, but as the stranding teams monitored the situation they reported that he was able to get free as the tide came in. It was so rewarding to see this family and get to report that they were together, and with our data we could alert the research teams that later came to view them and monitor for any changes in his behavior or body condition. This type of event is very rare, so I am so relieved that all seems to be well with this family!
We departed the 65Bs as more vessels got on scene, and continued south to search for other whales and wildlife. We hoped to find some baleen species in the Juan de Fuca outside Cattle Pass, so we searched Salmon Bank following lots of bird activity. While we didn’t find any minke or humpbacks, we did see some harbor porpoise and enjoyed taking in the serene landscape around us and listening to all the bird chatter. From there we continued towards Lopez Island, stopping at Whale Rocks to see all of the Stellar’s Sea Lions hanging out there. We continued searching for any more harbor porpoise or other animals in Cattle Pass as we made our way slowly north, when suddenly we noticed some type of disturbance along the Lopez shoreline… More killer whales!! For the second time today, we found whales that no one else had reported! There were at least 3 hugging the shoreline, seemingly hunting as they changed directions and splashed a bit. One picked up speed heading north, and then pushed offshore in our direction. We watched this individual continue to splash and roll around, and soon it was apparent that he had left the other whales or they had left him as we didn’t see any other dorsals surfacing. Definitely interesting behavior, which helped clue us in to who this whale was… From the unique notch in the dorsal, the dorsal size of a growing young male, and other identifiers including scars and the shape of his eye patch, we quickly realized we had found T65A5 Indy! He is another whale I have been waiting to see all season, so I could not believe he was with us. We had an incredible encounter with Indy; he breached near us many times, while also rolling around and tail slapping. Was this his way of hunting/eating on his own? Why did the other whales we saw briefly disappear right after they caught a seal? Was it the rest of the 65As? Were they going to reunite with their relatives the 65Bs we had found earlier? So many questions remained unanswered as we continued to watch Indy splash around, and no other boats had found where the other whales disappeared to. I’m going to stick with my theory that Indy has returned to San Juan Island for crabbing season, since he is well known for playing with crab pots! I hope to see him stick around the islands for a while, and perhaps we can figure out who the other whales possibly were depending who else shows up this week. Eventually we said goodbye to Indy, cruising the San Juan shoreline in case the other whales were sneaking around there. We made one last stop to see the sea otter near Turn Rock before returning to Friday Harbor. Such an incredible trip!!!
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/