Abby | M/V Sea Lion | April 17th, 2026 | 12:30pm
Another sunny spring day here on San Juan Island and another great day to explore the Salish Sea. Today we took a right out of Friday Harbor and headed inter island. We crossed San Juan Channel and traveled along the ferry route! We cruised along the south shore of Shaw Island where we could see the shoreline of Lopez Island on our starboard, or right, side of the vessel. As we rounded the north tip of Lopez Island and passed along the Lopez Island Ferry Dock, we took another right. We headed southeast towards Thatcher Pass, the area of water between Blakely Island and Decatur Island. We had a report in that area of a group of 4 Bigg's Killer Whales! These individuals were already identified as the T100 matriline.
T100/Hutchins — female, born around 1979
T100C/Laurel — male, born in 2002
T100E/Tharaya — female, born in 2009
T100F/Estrella — born in 2014
Laurel, the fully grown male in this family, is identifiably larger than his mom, Hutchins, and siblings Tharaya and Estrella. This group were exhibiting some interesting behavior during our time with them. All of us on board had to keep our heads on a swivel because they were not traveling in the most predictable path. Sometimes one or two individuals would be significantly further in front of the others. While at other times, we had one or two on our port side, while the other two were on our starboard. We certainly had to do quite a bit of whale shuffling today! We believe some of their behaviors could have indicated they were hunting or prey sharing. We got some great looks of them swimming towards each other and tail slapping. There was also quite a bit of surface activity that caused some large splashes too. When it was time for us to head back towards Friday Harbor, we made a stop near Turn Island to try to find some harbor seals. We found quite a few hauled out along the shoreline. We also had a surprise Steller's Sea Lion by Turn Rock! We don't often find Steller's here, so it was an unexpected find! Overall, we had an incredible trip and great views of those Bigg's Killer Whales!
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/