Lauren Tschirhart | July 15th, 2026 | M/V Osprey | 12:30 pm
In the interislands of the Salish Sea, it is not often that we get the opportunity to see multiple humpbacks traveling together. Therefore, our encounter today was quite special. We got word that three humpback whales were seen swimming together in Presidents Channel. We departed Friday Harbor and wasted no time getting to that report. We zoomed north through San Juan Channel and Spring Passage and made our way on scene. These three humpback whales were identified as BCY0770/ Gibbous, Split Fin/ BCZ0298 and BCX1251/ Orion. All three of these animals are males and they all spend their winters in the breeding and calving grounds of Hawai’i. We watched as these three headed west hugging the Orcas Island coastline.
There was another report of a group of three orcas on the north side of Waldron Island, so we decided to leave our humpback friends and made our way north in Boundary Pass. In route to this report, we observed a small aggregation of harbor porpoise surfacing in a current line. The three orcas found were identified as members of the Bigg’s Killer Whale matriline the T100s. We watched these whales as they surfaced right under the iconic volcano of the North Cascades; Mount Baker.
After circumnavigating Waldron Island, we made our way back into Boundary Pass and stopped at White Rock. This rocky island is a great place to look for harbor seals. We finished our tour by observing plenty of sun bathing pinnipeds and then cruised back to Friday Harbor.
Want 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