Olivia Ellman | M/V Osprey | July 18th, 2025 | 12:30 PM
Today’s afternoon began with some light rain and gloomy conditions, but nothing could stop us from having another beautiful day on the water! I was very excited when I heard there were reports of some familiar whales not too far from us up San Juan Channel, so we left Friday Harbor heading in that direction. We scanned along the coastlines as we passed Shaw and then Orcas Island, and reached President’s Channel. Soon enough we began to reach the area of the last whale report, and quickly found ourselves among a group of Bigg’s Killer Whales! Based on the reports from other boats, this family was identified as the T36As. I had seen this family yesterday on the other side of Orcas Island, so I was excited to see them again and thrilled to also see that T36A1 Tierna and her 2022 calf Drift were traveling with the rest of them today! Tierna’s dorsal fin has a very distinct notch, so it was easy to identify her and confirm what other boats had told us. She doesn’t always travel with her mom and siblings now that she has a calf of her own, and if she has another calf soon I would not be surprised if she spends less time with the rest of them, but it was great to see T36A Leland as a grandmother and mom. Leland’s youngest calf was born in 2021, so her calf Squall and grandcalf Drift likely have a lot of fun together. We did see the family pick up some speed and show off a bit through some porpoising, small splashing, and a few little spyhops! They briefly slowed down, but continued traveling north pretty quickly so that marked our time to begin turning around. This was such a fun encounter with this family, and great to see all six of them together.
We traveled towards Flattop Island to search for some harbor seals, and were in luck when we saw lots of them hauled out on the shoreline! I always love seeing Bigg’s and harbor seals in the same trip to get the full picture of our ecosystem and see how both populations are able to thrive in this area despite one being the prey of the other. Along our way back to Friday Harbor, the sun came out to round out the fun adventure on the water.