Lauren Tschirhart | May 15th, 2026 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:30 pm
Our Classic Whale Watch & Wildlife Tour aboard the M/V Sea Lion started off strong as there were killer whales found just outside of the harbor. We took a left out of San Juan Channel and headed north. We cruised up the San Juan Island coastline and made our way near Reuben Tarte, where there was a group of seven Bigg’s killer whales. This group was made up of two different families, the T090s as well as the T0124A4’s. We watched as these whales surfaced near the shoreline, heading north up the coast. T090B/ Piglet, a 20 year-old male definitely stole the show, as his dorsal fin towered over the rest of the group. At 20 years old, T090B/ Piglet is almost considered fully grown. This means his dorsal fin is just shy of 6 feet tall! Suddenly these seven whales changed direction and started swimming east across the channel, just as this direction change happened a fellow Pacific Whale Watch Association vessel found a humpback near O’Neal Island. We decided to depart the killer whales and headed towards the humpback report. The humpback was identified as BCX1795/ Scuttles. This male humpback is famous for having several rake marks on its tail fluke. Rake marks are markings that are left behind from teeth. It’s clear that at some point during Scuttle's life, he was attacked by orcas. After an epic pass from Scuttles we cruised over to Spieden Island to check out some more wildlife. We viewed a large group of Stellar sea lions at Green Point, and also observed several bald eagles and mouflon sheep. What a full wildlife experience, and we never even had to leave San Juan Channel.