Lauren | M/V Osprey | Sunday, August 3rd, 2025 | 12:30 PM
Today we went the distance. We ventured just about as far as we can during a 4 hour Classic Whale Watch and Wildlife tour. The T065A’s had been picked up in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and they were trending southeast, which was not great news for us. If they continued on that trend they would’ve been out of rour each. We were pretty convinced we weren’t gonna see them as the T065A’s have been spending most of their summer down in Puget Sound. We figured they were heading for Admiralty Inlet to go back to the “city.” As luck would have it, they decided to head northeast up the Whidbey Island shoreline. I have only gotten the opportunity to watch whales in that specific location a handful of times. It’s always fun to explore unfamiliar coast lines. The M/V Osprey departed Friday Harbor and headed south. There was no time for stops as these whales were far! We pointed out some harbor seals and double crested cormorant nests at Goose Island as we departed San Juan Channel. As we made our way into the Strait of Juan de Fuca we headed even further south, seeing several harbor porpoise surface along the way.
With our destination in sight, we got word T065A2/Ooxjaa had just broken off from the group, so the whales we were viewing were:
- T065A/Artemis — (F) 1986
- T065A3/Amir(a) — (M) 2007
- T065A4/Ellifrit — (F) 2011
- T065A6/Callisto — (F) 2018
We watched as these whales traveled tight to shore. Suddenly, the whales started to become more active. It seemed like they were hunting. We then witnessed a slew of surface behaviors! Spyhopping tail lobing, pec slapping, lunging and even moonwalking (a personal favorite). When a killer whale “moonwalks” it means that they swim backwards. They were so fun to watch! These behaviors definitely made our long journey worth it. On our way back north we made one last stop at Whale rocks to see some Stellar Sea Lions, then made our way back to Friday Harbor.