Olivia Ellman | M/V Osprey | August 8th, 2026 | 12:30 pm
We had such an exciting (and surprising!) find in the Juan de Fuca this afternoon! When we left the harbor, there were only some rumors of whale sightings in our regions that no vessels had been able to find so we began by heading south. Since we are part of the PWWA, we coordinated with other vessels in our network to figure out where to join in on the scanning in the hopes of finding whales. Luckily, conditions in the south had improved in time for us to be able to head towards Salmon Bank and the Strait of Juan de Fuca to expand the search range. We found some harbor seals at Goose Island, viewed the many cormorants and gulls, and spotted numerous harbor porpoise along the way towards Cattle Point. We also had great visibility, with Mount Baker in full view finally after days of being obscured by smoke. Since there had been a shore report hours before off the west side of San Juan Island of some whales heading south, we hoped we might find some tall black dorsal fins but were scanning for any and all signs of different whale species. We traveled quite far across the banks, pushing further offshore and eventually crossing the Canadian border. Soon after Captain Gabe announced that we would travel a bit further before turning around, I suddenly saw a humpback whale breach off our port side!! We immediately stopped the vessel and waited to see where this individual was… Quickly after we saw another exhalation at the surface, still over 200m away. From the look I got of this whale’s body, it seemed like a pretty small humpback to me. Suddenly things made sense when we noticed there were actually two whales here – a mom and a calf! We watched the mom go on a fluking dive, raising her tail out of the water, while the baby attempted to do the same beside her. At this point in the season, we typically start to see baby humpbacks figuring out how to take fluking dives and gaining more independence… so cute! This baby was likely born around February in either the Hawaiian or Mexican breeding ground, and traveled a long way back here with mom to learn about the feeding ground.
Based on the fluke photos I got of the mom, I first ID’d this individual as a well known humpback named Divot who has been seen all summer with her 2026 calf. Divot has an all black tail with unique marking and shape on the edge of her fluke. However, another PWWA vessel uploaded photos to HappyWhale, and got a match of an almost identical whale named Scoop! After taking a closer look at our photos, it does appear that Divot has a doppelganger also with a 2026 calf in the San Juan Islands! Scoop is a known female in the region who has been linked to the Hawaiian breeding ground, first being sighted in Hawaii in 1999 and a known mother to 6 calves. Her 2026 calf was uploaded to Happy Whale on June 2024 seen in BC waters and the photos are a perfect match to ours, how exciting! We watched this pair travel together, with Scoop taking fluking dives and her baby attempting a fluking dive each time beside her. While we got incredibly lucky with our first look being a breach from the baby, this type of travel is definitely more of the norm. Eventually we had to depart the pair, and continued back towards San Juan Island. We made a stop at Whale Rocks to see the fiesty Stellar’s Sea Lions and found the sea otter at Turn Rock before returning to the harbor. Scoop and her calf definitely made an impression I will not forget, and it was so special getting to find these whales today and help in the ID process.
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/