Lauren Tschirhart | August 23rd, 2026 | M/V Kestrel | 10:00 am
Our morning tour aboard the M/V Kestrel was a huge success! Overall we got the opportunity to observe a total of 12 Bigg’s Killer Whales. The first group we spotted is known as the T099’s and they were traveling with T037A4/ Crinkle, an 11-year-old female. The T037A’s have been widely dispersed this summer, T037A/ Volker (mom) and T037A2/ Inky have been hanging out as a duo, but the rest of the kids have been off linking up and traveling with other families. I wish I could ask little Crinkle to spill the tea… I am dying to know the drama.
The T099’s are made up of:
- T099/Bella — female, born around 1984
- T099B/Holly — female, born in 2007
- T099C/Barakat — male, born in 2009
- T099D/Puck — male, born in 2015
- T099E/Qwiin qwiin oo quii la — female, born in 2021
After cruising around Lopez Sound with these six whales, we decided to depart and head over to Presidents Channel. We got word that another six orcas had been found near Waldron Island. We zoomed northwest, between Orcas Island and Shaw Island and made our way into Spring Passage. Once in Presidents Channel, we started to see dorsal fins in the distance. The whales were identified as the T049A’s. We absolutely adore this family, as they are frequent flyers here in the Salish Sea, and we spent a lot of time with them. While we were watching these whales travel along the Waldron Island shoreline, we were surprised by a random surface behavior from one of the whales. One of them spyhopped! A spyhop is when they bring their rostrum or face out of the water, lifting their eyes above the surface to take a look around. It’s not often you get the opportunity to see the entirety of a killer whale's face, so we were stoked! We decided to end our encounter on a high note, waved goodbye to our whale friends, and made our way back to Friday Harbor!
More information about the Pacific Whale Watch Association: https://www.pacificwhalewatchassociation.com/