Levi Vandebunte | M/V Kestrel | July 14th, 2026 | 2:00pm
We left the dock feeling quite confident today, as several species of whales had been reported South of us in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Luckily for us, that area happened to be extremely calm on this day. We entered beautiful and glassy waters as we passed by Cattle Point Lighthouse. Our first stop was to view two Humpback Whales just a couple of minutes South of San Juan Island. We approached slowly and turned our engines off, and these two slowly travelled past us. We could hear the entirety of each breath, which is one of my absolute favorite parts of these trips. These two ended up being identified later in the day as "Honu" and the 2025 Calf of "Smiley". "Honu" migrates here from Hawaii, while the younger whale that was accompanying them has never been seen in Hawaii or Mexico yet, so it is still a mystery which breeding ground they travel here from. The gender of both of these whales is unknown currently. From there we travelled a few miles South for some looks at a pair of Bigg's Killer Whales! We approached siblings T77C "Neftali" and T77E "Misneach" in the calm blue waters. They were travelling East at a comfortable pace, and performing short dive times. Neftali's massive dorsal fin towered roughly six feet above the surface of the water, while the younger Misneach stayed close by his side. Misneach has not yet been confirmed as a male or female, but we will know in the coming years which one is the case, because if they are male their dorsal fin will start to grow just like their older brother Neftali's did. We spent some amazing time with this duo. Just as we were about to leave, another humpback popped up just behind these two Killer Whales! We stopped our boat and watched as they passed each other, and saw the Humpback show their fluke as they moved West past us. This humpback had been identified as CRC-21115. This four year old whale migrates here from Mexico, but has not yet been named, and their gender is still unknown. This trip was full of mysterious Humpbacks! We finally departed from these two species of whale, and decided to stop near Salmon Bank just South of San Juan Island to try to spot one more. A Minke Whale had been seen in the area earlier in the day, but this species is by far the toughest to spot in this region. Just moments after we arrived, we got an amazing look at it as it surfaced off of our starboard side! We then sat and were fortunate enough to see this whale surface four more times over the next 20 minutes! These were my first looks at a Minke all season so far, so I was stoked about this encounter! From there we made a stop at Whale Rocks which is just East of Cattle Point Lighthouse to check out some Steller Sea Lions. These huge pinnipeds were mostly napping, but we spotted two of them in the water thrashing around. We looked closer and realized that they were both tearing apart a large fish! It was awesome to see, as I personally have only seen a Steller feeding like that once before. We then spotted a bald eagle circling above us, and some Harbor Seals off of the coast of Lopez Island. Several of these Seals had tiny pups with them which was adorable. A Male belted Kingfisher then flew right by us before we continued North. Just before returning to Friday Harbor, we stopped for a look at the Sea Otter that loves to hangout in a kelp bed off of Turn Island. He was wrapped up in the kelp so that he wouldn't float away, looking as cute as ever. We then returned to the dock, and recapped an absolutely epic day on the water!
The IDs and details of the six total whales that we saw are as follows:
Killer Whales:
T77C "Neftali" (M) b. 2006
T77E "Misneach" (?) b. 2016
Humpback Whales:
BCX1856 "Honu" (?) b. 2018
2025 Calf of BCY0995 "Smiley" (?) b. 2025
CRC-21115 (Unnamed) (?) b. 2022
Minke Whales:
- One Unidentified Minke
This was one of my favorite trips that I've worked all season thus far. This group of passengers was an absolute joy to be out on the water with and we want to thank them for choosing to spend their day with us here at San Juan Safaris!!!
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/