Lauren Tschirhart | June 21st, 2026 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30 pm
Our Roche Harbor departure aboard the M/V Sea Lion began with us departing the dock and heading northwest over the top of Henry Island. We cruised across the Haro Strait, eventually making our way into British Columbia. After crossing the Canadian border, we started to see several dorsal fins in the distance. These dorsal fins belonged to members of the Bigg’s Killer Whale family the T100’s. Although there are other whales in this family group, lately we have only seen three of them traveling together. The matriarch, T100/ Hutchins has been traveling with two of her offspring, T100C/ Laurel and T100F/ Estrella. We observed these whales as they zigzagged south down the Haro. We took a brief detour to retrieve a tire that we found floating nearby. Picking up trash is a great way for us to practice our man overboard drills, and who doesn’t love a bit of good ocean karma? After our trash removal mission, we caught up with these whales once again near D’arcy Island.
After observing them a bit longer, we waved these sea pandas goodbye and went back into search mode. We eventually made our way to Turn Point Lighthouse on Stuart Island. Seeing this iconic lighthouse during sunset wasn’t the only reason we decided to head to this picturesque point. There was a report of a humpback whale nearby, but with no boats on scene, it was our job to reacquire this animal. We decided to shut down so we could try and do some “whale listening.” If you have the correct conditions, you often can actually hear whales before you can even see them. Humpback whales have crazy large lung capacities, and when they come up to the surface, they expel all the stale air out of their lungs, which creates a loud “koosh-ing” sound. Moments after shutting off our engines, I heard that exact noise coming from our stern, then I spotted a large spout at our 6 o’clock. We had found the humpback! This humpback whale, known as BCX1800/ Gretzky, was first sighted back in 2017. This whale spends its winters in the breeding and calving grounds around the Hawaiian Islands. We watched as this whale did several fluke up dives, getting great looks at its distinct tail fluke markings! We made a final stop at Sentinel Rock to look at some harbor seals and then cruised down Spieden Island, viewing several bald eagles as well as all three ungulate species that call Spieden home. We eventually made our way back to Roche Harbor just in time for the iconic colors ceremony.