Olivia Ellman | M/V Kestrel | September 5th, 2026 | 10:00 am and 2:00 pm
Two adventure tours today in the most beautiful conditions was pretty awesome! For our 10am trip, we left the dock in the direction of some whale rumors but didn’t know quite where the day would take us. It was an especially lucky morning since not too far up San Juan Channel we found that Bigg’s Killer Whale T65A3 Amir was travelling! He has been seen by himself recently, though he sometimes does travel with his mom and siblings of the T65A matriline. We started to get a bit dialed into his direction and behavior, but soon in the distance we noticed some other dorsal fins… It was the T18s coming around Jones Island! I wondered if they were going to join with Amir, but it quickly became apparent that neither Amir or the T18s were interested in hanging out since we soon just saw the T18s and Amir had disappeared a bit. We got some quick looks at Nootka, Galiano, and Spouter, but decided to go find where Amir had went. We found him again further north up the channel, and soon he meandered towards the Orcas Island shoreline. It was here that he slowed down, and circled back and forth on the shoreline a bit. We got beautiful looks at him, with no other boats around, along the shore in perfectly calm waters. Perhaps he was searching for a meal, but soon he continued his travel north. We departed Amir from here, and made our way towards White Rock to see some harbor seals before continuing south back to see the T18s again. They had made their way to the Shaw shoreline, and we watched them as they made their way towards Lopez. We continued on towards Cattle Pass and watched the Sea Lions splash around and growl at each other at Whale Rocks. After exploring more of the coast, we ended our trip with a stop at Turn Rock to find the sea otter munching on some sea urchins!! I had been waiting all season to see this, so this was definitely a highlight!
Our afternoon trip left the dock excited to see what had changed over the last hour. We began heading south towards Cattle Pass, and stayed near the Lopez shoreline. Once we looped around closer to Lopez Pass in between Lopez and Decatur, we slowed our speed since we heard from another PWWA vessel that the T18s had been making their way through Lopez Sound in this direction. We waited a bit further off, until we saw one of the boys’ gigantic dorsal fins in the distance, and soon saw all three family members heading east. They had slowed down to circle around part of the shoreline, so perhaps they were working on getting a harbor seal? It was difficult to tell, since shortly after they continued travelling out of the pass and into Rosario. We got beautiful looks at Spouter in particular when he surfaced within range to hear his loud exhalation, and we continued to watch them as the family meandered together and apart. We got some final looks at them, before turning back south to go search for other wildlife. Our travels brought us into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, across some of the banks until we slowed down for my most exciting moment of the day… a Minke Whale!! Today was my lucky day, because after waiting all season to find one we got to see beautiful surfacings in the glassy waters around us, including one lunge in our direction where we could see the baleen in its mouth! We stayed in the area for some time, enjoying the peaceful waters and exciting minke surfacings. Eventually it was time to begin heading back, so we made our way north towards Cattle Pass and then back to the harbor. Today’s trips ended up checking off two of my season wishes, what a special day to be out exploring the Salish Sea!
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/