Olivia Ellman | M/V Kestrel | July 13th, 2026 | 2:00 pm
Our adventure tour today was full of surprises as we journeyed through the Salish Sea in both US and Canadian waters. We had a few reports of whales further in the Canadian Gulf Islands when we departed, so we began by heading north and wanted to wait and see how things were changing as we got closer. Once we reached Spieden, we continued west and then decided to cross the Haro towards Sidney in Vancouver Island. We soon reached the vicinity of the shoreline where some Bigg’s Killer Whales had been reported by other PWWA vessels, and we took an extra cautious approach as there was lots of boat traffic and we were unsure where the whales were. Soon enough we spotted their dorsal fins about 400 yds away from us, and we continued at a distance as they moved along the shoreline towards Coal Island. This trio had been identified as T46B3 and her calf 46B3A, along with her younger sister T46B6. We have seen the extended 46B matriline throughout the area recently, so it was exciting to see these three who travel separately. Even more interestingly, we wondered what made 46B6 Sol leave her mom to go with her older sister Sedna… Perhaps Sedna needed some extra help with her one year old calf? It is endlessly fascinating getting to observe these changes in social/family dynamics! The group was taking some longer dives, and we expected them to still be further towards the shore when they popped up closer off our left side! We watched them cross our bow, getting to hear their exhalations at this closer distance. They swam past us continuing north; we let them continue further away and slowly followed along. We didn’t want to stay with these whales too long for the amount of boats in the area, so we began to make our way out of the area when all of a sudden Captain Brian noticed black dorsal fins off the other side of our boat… New whales had just showed up in the area! No one else had seen these whales yet, so we were in the right place at the right time to find them. This pair of whales was visibly different from the trio we had just seen as one of them had a much larger dorsal fin! We continued to observe them to try to figure out who they were, and knowing one was an adult male was helpful in putting the pieces together. My first guess was it could be a pair of brothers known to travel together that have been seen recently, but it was difficult to tell without a telephoto lens. Once another PWWA vessel joined us, they confirmed my guess that this was T77C and T77E! I hadn't seen this pair this season yet, so what an exciting and surprising find! We watched this pair continue along the shoreline for some time before we departed the area to make our way back towards US waters.
We cruised across the Haro, and as we approached Turn Point on Stuart Island we heard from our sister vessel the Osprey that they had found a humpback whale in the area! We slowed our speed to scan around for any signs of this large whale… After some waiting, we saw a blow in the distance and then made our way on scene. This solo animal was cruising along the current line heading into the boundary waters and the Gulf Islands, and gave us such a great change in perspective after watching the smaller killer whales. We watched a few beautiful fluking dives before continuing southeast along Stuart. We learned that from the fluke of that whale it had been photo identified as an individual known as Slits. It was such a beautiful end to our adventure to cruise through Johns Pass, the north side of Spieden, and then back to San Juan Channel and Friday Harbor.
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/