Levi Vandebunte | M/V Osprey | July 18th, 2026 | 12:30pm
On this day we turned North out of Friday Harbor and wrapped around the top of San Juan Island. We crossed Haro Strait and entered Canadian waters near Sidney Island and D'Arcy Island. Not long after we slowed down, we spotted black dorsal fins cutting through the water. It was the T109As! This family of six Bigg's Killer Whales is led by the mother/matriarch "Runaway" and five of her kiddos. Her eldest son "Garrett" is of the age where his dorsal fin is starting to really sprout up and get quite tall. At just 14 years old, he likely will keep growing for multiple more years. He may end up being huge! After just a few minutes of watching his family, one of the younger whales breached! Over the course of the encounter, we saw nearly ten more breaches from the group. We also saw tons of tail-slapping, pec-slapping, and rolling. This may have been the most playful behaviors that I've ever seen on one of our tours! I had a blast, and it seemed like everybody else on board did as well. After tons of amazing looks at this family, we left and began our trip back home. We swung by a large rock and checked out some adorable Harbor Seals. Then we searched the Spieden Island coast for Bald Eagles. We found one sitting on the shore actively feeding on something! It appeared to be a deceased Mouflon Sheep, which is a species that can be found on this island. The white feathering around the Eagle's head was stained red with blood, it was a sight that I had never seen before! I then watched two juvenile Bald Eagles soar right by us extremely close to each other. Then a Belted Kingfisher zoomed by! These are one of my favorite birds in the region. Finally, we saw several (alive this time) Mouflon Sheep grazing on the hillside of the island. From there we zoomed down San Juan Channel and returned home to Friday Harbor. What an epic trip!!!
The IDs and details of the six whales that we saw are as follows:
T109A "Runaway" (F) b. 1990
T109A4 "Garrett" (M) b. 2012
T109A5 "Argyle" (?) b. 2014
T109A6 "Riley" (F) b. 2018
T109A7 "Wieland" (M) b. 2021
T109A8 "Weiss" (?) b. 2025
We had so much fun watching these playful whales with this group of passengers, and thank them for choosing to spend their day with us here at San Juan Safaris!!!
Wanting 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/