First Five: Post-breach activity with Big Mama the humpback: tail and pectoral slaps, and fluking
Last Four: T36s and T36B orcas: resting, logging, and some of the juveniles lightly porpoising
Between Lummi and Sucia Island area by Lincoln Humphry on 6/11/26

 

June 10th- Naturalist Kara

Kara didn’t even manage to finish the morning introduction before Orcas were found in the bay! The T123’s were spread out across the bay, searching for food over a half mile spread. We stuck close to the matriarch, Sidney and later left them behind to go search for more further afield. We found some sleepy stellar sea lions, and watched a bald eagle scatter some double crested cormorants off their nests.

After lunch, we received some info from friends that a grey whale was nearby and changed course to go give it a look. The grey whale was combing the shallows off of Guemes Island and gave us a tail fluke wave goodbye.

We met up with the T123’s again off of Lummi island, busy zig zagging, porpoising, and they finally decided to ride the wake of our boat! As we stalled out to allow for their surprise closeness, they went under the boat, and a little rainbow formed from their exhalations. Cool interaction!

Overall busy day on the water, with lots to see.

 

June 11th- Naturalist Kara

It felt like we spot any potential wildlife on the water today, just because the surface was so glass smooth. Harbor porpoise were abundant, with their little fins not being overshadowed by any surf. Common murres and rhinoceros auklets were diving and we could still see them under the water for a tiny bit, and jellyfish were everywhere. The visibility was good even into the shipping lanes of the big open water of the Strait of Georgia, where we spent some lovely alone time with the T36s and T36Bs.

The Bigg’s orcas were spread out from each other for close to a mile, with very calm and slow sleepy surfacings. We spent time with different whales in the group, and especially the two sets of mom and their juveniles. This group has a 2024 calf, Auk, and a 2025 calf, Maple. All members were very leisurely traveling and snoozing through the strait, with a bit of logging at the surface, where the orca doesn’t move for a bit, and just stays for some steady breathing. Since the orcas were all in some pretty calm waters, we were able to shut the engines and off and try out our hydrophone. We were hoping the juveniles would be a bit chatty, but the pod was quiet. It was a long shot!

We left the orcas in search of a humpback we briefly saw as we got on seen with the orcas. We found Big Mama the humpback by Sucia and Patos, where the water was doing a lot more churning due to tidal effect. She was combing the waters, scooping up food, and showing us her tail for some deeper dives, but then Big Mama surprised us all with a full breach out of nowhere! Followed quickly by a chin slap, peduncle (tail) throw and then turned on her side and slapped the water with her big pectoral fins over and over. The crew and customers were giddy and shocked! This whale is such an icon in these parts due to her influence on the Humpback comeback to the area, and every time we see her it feels like a true celebrity interaction. We love her and hope she keeps doing well!

 

June 12 – Naturalist Lauren

Sometimes we search far for whales, today was not one of those days. From a 4 hour old Reddit post, we had a clue that there might be whales in Bellingham Bay. We headed north straight off the dock doing a wide scan and it all paid off. We found the T123’s hanging out, once again right in the bay! It’s always a good day to be the boat that finds the whales. We spent a good hour with them as they were searching for a meal near the Nooksack Delta. The pod had moments of coming close together and very spread out in their food search. It is always impressive to see how these large marine mammals can get into waters as shallow as 15ft.

We pushed away from the whales once we handed them off to other boats, and headed north up Hale’s Passage in hopes of finding a baleen whale. We gave the Strait of Georgia a good scan, turned south and cruised down the west side of Lummi. We had an entertaining steller sea lion encounter with five sea lions on the marker at one point. Two large males were battling for a spot in the cuddle puddle displaying their incredible strength hoping out, and ungraciously falling into, the waters below.

Thankfully the whales we found didn’t go too far. We caught back up with them again near Vendovi Island. We had an amazing pass off the stern, passengers got a real sense of how large these animals truly are.

A whale watch where we start and end our adventure with orca whales is always a great day. Especially when they’re so nearby home.

 

June 13 – Naturalist Lauren.

“We looked fucking everywhere and then went to Morsby” -Casey

It was a long one, but a good one. Our search took us into Canadian waters this afternoon after thoroughly searching the south end of the Strait of Georgia. We had a beautiful cruise by the outer islands and into some turbulent waters, but alas, no whales to be seen. Lots of harbor porpoise feeding in those current lines. We pushed further west with hopes that reported orcas whales continued northward.

We caught up with three members of the T86A’s: Eider, Akai and Siku, along with the T124A’s: Kittiwake, Kasuun and Kite. These two pods were up to something as we got on scene with lots of direction changes, quick bursts of speed, some “hand stands” with flukes sticking vertically out of the water, tail slaps and even two breaches!

We ended our gorgeous day on the water with a highly entertaining stellar sea lion show. Three immature lions and one mature male were jumping/falling/being pushed off and causing a ruckus. They all displayed how gracefully these massive animals can launch their bodies out of the water and onto channel markers. They were extremely vocal too, and of course, we wished them well in their language as they departed.

 

June 14 – Naturalist Lauren

It was a hot one out there today. We ended up doing an almost complete circumnavigation of Orcas Island. We began by heading through the middle of the islands with beautiful views of Mount Baker all day.

The T100’s: Hutchins, Laurel and Estrella, were perusing around Waldron Island when we caught up with them. A beautiful group of three. They kept close to each other. Laurel being a full grown male, allowed for a true idea of how impressively large his dorsal fin is compared to mom and sister. They kept us on our toes, zig-and-zagging for the first few sets of surfacings before they straightened out their direction. We cruised south with them for a while admiring their powerful exhalations and the lake-like conditions on the water.

We saw pigeon guillemots and a bald eagle going through some of the Finger Islands of Sucia Island before we headed east and back home to Bellingham bay.

 

June 15- Naturalist Elliot

We saw stellers fighting on the the navigational markers north of Sinclair and turned south into Rosario Strait and eventually caught up with a humpback off James Island who turned out to be Scuttle. Scuttle is known from prominent rake marks on his flukes from an attempted predation by orcas as a calf and has since taken to harassing orcas as an adult. He travelled down Rosario with us fluking up a storm.

We then turned west into Shoal Bight where we found a gray whale feeding! Lots of back and forth passes and some great looks at its rostrum.

We stopped on the way home and saw a big ole pile of harbor seals and pups on Eliza Rock and got to watch them thrashing a couple fish.