Lauren Tschirhart | July 1st, 2026 | M/V Kestrel | 2:00 pm
Today was a particularly exciting whale watch for me as I got to see two of my very special whale friends for the first time this season! I have been working for San Juan Safaris since the summer of 2021, so at this point I really do consider these apex predators my friends… even if they literally have no idea that I exist. There are only a handful of adult male killer whales in the Bigg’s population that are considered to be independents. Most of the time, if their mothers are still alive, males travel by their mothers side for life! Sometimes, if an adult male's mother passes away, that male may end up linking up with one of their sisters' matrilines and traveling with them. With that being said, there are always exceptions to this rule, and the Bigg’s/ Transient Killer Whale eco-type’s social and family structures are known to be a bit looser than other eco-types. Two well known independents in this population are 28-year-old T049C/ Nielson and 25-year-old T049A1/ Noah. These two whales are actually related to one another, T049C/ Nielson is the uncle of T049A1/ Noah. Nielson's sister is the matriarch of the T049A’s, and her nickname is Nan! Although these two big boys were not traveling together, we got the opportunity to see both of them on our tour today, which was a real treat.
We departed Friday Harbor and headed south in San Juan Channel. We quickly made our first stop in Griffin Bay, as that is where T049A1/ Noah was spotted. Noah was traveling tightly to shore, heading north up the San Juan Island coastline. We made a quick stop to Whale Rocks, a small island located in Cattle Pass. Whale rocks is almost always littered with Steller Sea Lions, and today was no different. We departed these sea lions and made our way up the west side of San Juan Island. We then caught up with a group of 10 additional Bigg’s Killer Whales, including T049C/ Nielson and members of the T046B’s. We watched as these whales zigged and zagged up the Haro Strait with the picturesque Lime Kiln Lighthouse as our backdrop. We made one final stop at Spieden Island and Sentinel Rock to view some mouflon sheep and harbor seals before finishing our circumnavigation of San Juan and making our way back to the dock.