Lauren Tschirhart | June 29th, 2026 | M/V Kestrel | 2:00 pm
Our Adventure Tour today was about as epic as they come… and we never even left San Juan Channel. A group of 11 Bigg’s Killer Whales aka Transient Orcas had been picked up in the Strait of Juan de Fuca heading north towards Cattle Pass. Anytime we have members from 3 or more matrilines swimming together, we call that a T-Party (“T” stands for Transient, which is a specific eco-type of killer whale). Eco-types are like sub-species, but the main difference is that sub-species can be found worldwide, where eco-types refer to a specific eco-system or range. The Bigg’s or Transient Killer Whale is the eco-type we encounter most frequently here in the Salish Sea. Due to photo-identification, we already knew which whales were a part of this T-Party before even getting on scene! The T075B’s, T123’s, T128, T125A and T077D were all present.
We took a right out of Friday Harbor and headed south in San Juan Channel. We tried to stop at Goose Island to view some harbor seals laying on the beach, but once we slowed down we immediately noticed several large dorsal fins in the distance. These whales were racing north out of Cattle Pass. We watched as one group sped up the channel, but we were distracted once again as several of the whales changed direction and were crossing our bow towards the harbor seals! Were we about to see a predation event? Lucky for the seals the whales didn’t seem interested. We watched as members of the T075B’s as well as T125A/ Jetsam surfaced tight to the San Juan Island shoreline. It was such an epic pass, getting unreal looks at T125A/ Jetsam’s famous dorsal notch. We let these whales pass by and decided to leave them for a moment to cruise on over to Whale Rocks. Whale Rocks is one of the best places in the San Juan’s to view Steller Sea Lions, and we didn’t want to miss our opportunity as these whales were leading us away from the iconic haul out. We observed these large pinnipeds and then caught up with these whales once again right outside Friday Harbor Marina. At this point, the T123’s and the two youngest members of the T075B’s had broken off and headed further north, so we decided to do the same. We caught up with these 6 whales as they made their way north into Boundary Pass. We had officially cruised the entirety of San Juan Channel! What a perfect day aboard the M/V Kestrel!