Olivia Ellman | M/V Osprey | August 20th, 2026 | 12:30 pm
With stunning views of Mt. Baker and beautiful sunny skies, we departed Friday Harbor excited to search for whales and wildlife. Luck was on our side as pretty quickly into our trip we reached a report of some Bigg’s Killer Whales! Not too far up San Juan Channel along Orcas Island there was a family of 6 travelling together, and no one was surprised to see that it was once again the T49A matriline! I love this family so much, and it has been such a joy seeing them all over the place these last weeks. Today, the 6 were slowly meandering along Orcas and some of the Wasp Islands. They were clustered together most of the time, giving us some great family photo opportunities with all 6 members at the surface at the same time. We did see some harbor seals swimming nearby our boat as we watched the whales, and wondered if the family was perhaps searching all these coastlines for a snack… There were a few instances between their longer dives that I thought maybe they were sneakily hunting, but at least during our time with them it seemed the harbor seals were safe. We circled around Crane Island, and caught up to the group along the Shaw shoreline where we enjoyed beautiful looks in the calm waters. Soon we departed the area to search for other wildlife; see you next time 49As!
We found some adorable harbor seals resting along a shallow reef once we reentered San Juan Channel. From there we explored to the north a bit, before turning back south to head towards the harbor. Our final stop was to see the sea otter at Turn Rock, who was still there today resting in the kelp. The kelp seemed almost like a perfect sea otter blanket, though with their incredibly dense fur sea otters definitely don’t need extra layers. We returned to Friday Harbor after another exciting day full of wildlife, and another beautiful encounter with the T49As.
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/