Members of T37’s, T37B’s and T123’s in top two rows, showing exciting behavior, and Nettle in top Center, where it got slightly beached before getting free. All on 7/16/26 by Lauren Rasmussen
The T77’s by Cherry Point on the Friday sunset whale watch 7/17/26 on bottom row by Lincoln Humphry

July 14  -Naturalist Lauren

Reports took us south today, and what a day it was. Strait of Juan de Fuca was glassy calm with visibility off the charts. We headed south to catch up with T77C & E (Neftali and Misneach). Very unique to see two siblings swimming away from mom’s pod. They were in travel mode heading west. We got some beautiful views of this sibling duo, their saddle patches, dorsal fins and eye patches.

As we headed back east, I spotted something strange, possibly a minke. Getting close to the south side of San Juan Island, views of two humpbacks became clear! These two were traversing Salmon Bank swimming in only 23 feet of water. Because they weren’t in deep water, they had no need to bring their flukes out of the water. We unfortunately did not get an ID shot for either, but we love seeing two different species in one day! Thankfully, other boats who hung out with these two in deeper waters and ID’d them as Honu (BCX1856) and 2025 calf of Smiley (BCY0995 calf 2025).

What a lovely dual species calm day for Lauren’s birthday!

 

July 15 – Naturalist Lauren

Three orcas and three humpies! We set out north today, due to a dense layer of fog down south. Thankfully some friends found the T100s near Pender Island, part of the Canadian gulf islands. We got some beautiful looks at Hutchins 100, Laurel 100C and Estrella 100E. They had a pretty big split in the group but came closer together near the end of our encounter. They were possibly doing some feeding as there were plenty of harbor porpoise out and about.

We heard some more reports south of us and went to check out three humpbacks swimming through San Juan Channel. Orion (BCX1251), Split Fin (BCZ0298) and Gibbous (BCY0770) were showing off their flukes on their deep dives. It was impressive to see three towering spouts break the surface. Fun to see a herd of humpbacks, we rarely see more than two at a time.

 

July 16- Naturalist Kara / Lauren

Early morning reports of whales nearby gave us a lucky day! The fog layer was pretty dense in surrounding waters, so we were happy to hear that Bigg’s orcas had been found off James Island. From a distance, we could see the orcas making some big splashes, as boats already with them told us they were chasing a sea lion! We came on scene just after the T37’s, T37B’s and T123’s had finished their unsuccessful Stellar sea lion hunt. It was discovered still breathing and making a slow exit, while the whales seemed utterly spent and were making a slow journey in a tight knit group to the north.

Following the group of 10 for awhile, the baby of the group, Slice (4YO), started feeling spunky and was busy swimming on their back, flipping their little tail into the air and did a couple mini breaches! These jumps out of the water didn’t fully launch, but still made quite a splash. A few adults joined in with the tail lobs towards the end, but the overall activity was restful. A thunderstorm rolled in, as we left the whales behind, which was very cool to see light up the sky!

Naturalist Lauren got to be apart of a wild unique whale encounter on the bird cruise! T65B2 (Nettle/Corvus) was stranded on a sandbar near Smith Island as the bird cruise approached looking for puffins. The boat was recruited to keep an eye on Nettle until the NOAA and other stranding network boats could make it on scene. Luckily Nettle was able to work themselves free as the tide rose, and he was seen swimming with his pod a few hours later!

 

July 17- Naturalist Kara

Our second sighting of the T77 siblings this week! T77C and T77E (Neftali and Misneach) were busy hunting near Boulder Reef off of Sinclair Island. This activity was super impressive with these 2 Bigg’s orca whales working hard to catch a harbor seal. They were busy with really high arches out of the water, tail slapping to stun the seal and the occasional spy hop to peek around and find it. Their hunt went on for quite some time, and it seemed that the seal might be able to escape, but Neftali and Misneach finally chased it down after going underneath our boat. We were able to stall our vessel and just watch these guys work on eating their lunch and then celebrate their success.

During our watch today, we watched birds scoop down leftovers from the successful hunt, and then the T77’s playing in the bits they no longer wanted to eat. With spyhops, tail lobs, backwards and upside down swimming, it was quite the exciting day!

 

July 18- Naturalist Elliot

The whales were a bit further from home today. The longer run was welcome welcome, getting a full tour of the San Juans on the way to whales. Today we shot off the dock and past Carter Point, deciding to go all the way through the middle to reports of Orcas near Sidney Island. After much anticipation, we arrived on scene at Kelp Reef with the T109A’s (T109A with offspring T109A4, 5 ,6 ,7 & 8). When we did arrive they were in travel mode, but before long we saw a splash and then they just let ‘er rip!

We saw breach after breach along with tail slapping, pec slapping, cartwheels, handstands and combinations of multiple behaviors that I don’t even have names for, for example, I believe it was 109A6 was mid-handstand and gave us a slow ballerina-esque twirl, with their entire peduncle region out of the water. They were right on top of Kelp Reef and we could see them both under and above the water. After about 30 minutes, they left the reef, and 3 minutes later surfaced right next to the boat. One whale tail slapped on our port side, before passing under the bow and another breached as soon as they passed under to starboard. For the first time I could check every box on the “orca behaviors” infographic we have at the naturalist station. Incredible day!

 

July 19- Naturalist Elliot

Well it was nice to have whales back in Rosario Strait again, after our long haul yesterday. We left home with credible reports of a humpback northbound at Williamson Rocks giving us time to go see three sleepy Stellers north of Sinclair and a pile of harbor seals (lots of moms and pups!) at Peapod Rocks. We made our way south through Rosario Strait and eventually caught up with a young humpback just off Washington Park. Things started out sleepy as the whale slowly made its way north to the southern end of Bellingham Channel, eventually we were the only boat on scene with this animal, such a cool experience. Eventually the whale went on a deep dive showing us an epic fluke, stayed down for 7 minutes and surfaced right next to the boat on the other side of us! Immediately the boat was out of gear and we watched the whale swimming under the surface of the water for about three more surfacings until it was a safe distance for us to maneuver away, but the whale stayed right by us! Just after we maneuvered back to traveling parallel about 300yds away, the whale fluked and went back down on a deep dive.

Being as erratic in terms of travel direction as it was we stopped and wait for it to resurface, and after about 4 minutes there was a collective gasp as the humpback breached about 50 yards away from us! My first humpback breach ever! I was pumping my fist in the air and if it weren’t for my sunglasses, 93 passengers would’ve seen a grown man cry. Captain Casey took the boat out of gear again and we watched the whale swim away and breach twice more plus a chin slap before moving back alongside at a safe distance. After this the whale was back in travel mode, we followed them to the docks right outside of Anacortes where we pointed towards home and left our new friend. One of our PWWA partners was able to ID this whale as CRC-23519, a whale with only one other entry on happy whale from 2025, further north on the east side of Vancouver island. This little whale has definitely piqued my interested and I’ll be very excited to see where this guys goes and where her breeding grounds are this winter.