Olivia Ellman | M/V Kestrel | May 15th, 2026 | 2:00 pm
Our adventure whale watch was full of wildlife from start to end! Before we left the harbor we saw a harbor seal swimming near our boat, and then after leaving the harbor we went to find a sea otter rolling around in some kelp! After that, we cruised north in San Juan Channel and soon caught up to a few boats off the coast of San Juan Island.. There was a humpback whale traveling close to shore, and we got a few looks as it surfaced. From our reports, this whale had been photo identified as an individual known as Scuttle. We watched Scuttle for a few surfacings, but since he was being a bit evasive, we decided to move on to some other reports in the area. We crossed to the other side of San Juan Channel and soon slowed down in the area of some Bigg’s Killer Whales!
There was a group of 7 individuals from two different matrilines traveling together near Orcas Island. This group was identified as the T90 and T124A matrilines, and T90B Piglet stood out the most with his towering dorsal fin. We watched them meander along the coastlines, and got to see some splashes and tail action from one of the younger individuals. After a while, we slowly departed the area to continue north to search for other wildlife. We made it to Green Point and looked at some Stellar’s Sea Lions resting on the shoreline. In the same spot, we saw exhalations in Spieden Channel of Scuttle the humpback again! We cruised a bit closer to get some better looks at him, and got to see some beautiful fluking dives! Eventually we began to turn back into San Juan Channel to head back to Friday Harbor, but once we got close we saw the same killer whales we watched earlier were now on this side of the harbor! We got some final looks at these Bigg’s to close out our day of wildlife.. Another amazing day in the Salish Sea!