Levi Vandebunte | M/V Osprey | September 18th, 2026 | 1:30pm
This tour left the dock with some amazing weather from the start. It certainly felt more like a mid-July day rather than mid-September, so it was a great day to be out on the water! We headed East on this day through the inner islands, similar to the route that the Washington State Ferries take. We slowly cruised through a narrow waterway known as Peavine Pass before entering Rosario Strait. We were immediately greeted with beautiful views of stunning Mt Baker, and within minutes were pleased to see four black dorsal fins appear above the water. It was a family of Bigg's Killer Whales known as they T65Bs! This family of four is led by their mother/matriarch "Chunk", and her three sons. Her oldest who is named "Birdsall" is fifteen years old and has starting sprouting a very large dorsal fin. He will likely keep growing for the next few years, but I personally think that he's the biggest fifteen year old male that I've ever seen. I would not be surprised if he ended up being one of the biggest whales in the entire population once he's fully grown. The family also includes seven year old "Nettle", and little three year old "Rook". This is one of my absolute favorite families in the population. They were the family that I saw the most last summer, but they have spent significantly less time in the region this year. This made me even more excited to see them again! We were granted the "money shot" as our Captain Gabe likes to call it within just a few minutes of seeing these whales. This is when Killer Whales line up perfectly in front of Mt Baker. I noticed quite a few guests with cameras on board today, so I was very pleased that we saw this! We then noticed the whales begin splashing and changing direction quite frequently. It appeared that they had grabbed something! We watched these whales enjoy what presumably was an unlucky Harbor Seal as their lunch. All four whales worked together to share the Seal amongst themselves. They then swam over to a nearby small island and circled it, possibly looking for more food. Then suddenly, they grabbed another Seal! They made quick work of this one as well while showing several different surface behaviors. Some of which included tail-slapping, headstands, rolling, and moonwalking! After they finished this meal we observed them for a few more minutes before finally saying goodbye. We made our way back home in the beautiful weather, and recapped an absolutely stunning day on the Salish Sea once we returned to the dock!
The IDs and details of the four total whales that we saw are as follows:
Bigg's Killer Whales (4):
T65B "Chunk" (F) b. 1993
T65B1 "Birdsall" (M) b. 2011
T65B2 "Nettle" (M) b. 2019
T65B3 "Rook" (M) b. 2023
This group of passengers was awesome and had so many great questions. We thank them for joining us this afternoon!
Wanting 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/