Lauren Tschirhart | August 12th, 2026 | M/V Kestrel | 2:00 pm
There was lots of action out in the Salish Sea today. The whale reports were coming in from several locations around Friday Harbor. The majority of these reports were south in the Strait of Juan De Fuca, so we decided to head that way. Just a few minutes after departing Friday Harbor, I spotted an unreported humpback whale traveling north in San Juan Channel. This humpback, later identified as BCX2077 “Graphite” was taking short dives, allowing for several awesome looks in a very short period of time. We got amazing looks at this whale's fluke before continuing south towards the earlier known reports. We made our way through Cattle Pass and continued southwest. It wasn’t long before we started seeing several Pacific Whale Watch Association (PWWA) vessels in the distance. These boats were on scene with a whopping 15 Bigg’s Killer Whales! Members of three different families were spending their afternoon socializing with one another. We originally thought we had the T019’s, T036’s and T049A’s, but after further review (using photo-identification) it was determined the T036’s were not in fact there, and we were watching the T046B’s!
It’s always exciting getting to see members of multiple families hanging out together, as we often only get the opportunity to see one family at a time. These whales would link up with one another, then spread back out, then link up once again. It was difficult to keep track of all of them. Not a bad problem to have… Having dorsal fins galore on all sides of the boat. One of the best parts of the tour was witnessing one of the younger whales backflip (twice may I add) and then continue to swim upside down, with its little pectoral fins out of the water.
We were feeling spoiled, so we waved goodbye to these orcas and headed back towards Cattle Pass. We made a quick stop at Whale Rocks to view some Steller Sea Lions, then made our way over to Shark Reef. While cruising through Shark Reef we witnessed several bald eagles (both adults and juveniles) along the Lopez Island shoreline, and also observed some hauled out harbor seals.
More information about the Pacific Whale Watch Association: https://www.pacificwhalewatchassociation.com/