Jetsam and Flotsam meeting up with the T65A’s in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, by Lincoln Humphry
June 16th- Naturalist Kara
Started the trip today with a blank slate: no reports for whales anywhere. We were vigilant in our journey today through the center of the islands while the crew scanned with binoculars and passengers on board helped look.
Friends on the water found some humpbacks after lunch, so we headed their way into Canadian waters. We watched a duo of humpbacks, Monarch and Yakima do lots of deep dives, showing off their tail flukes. This pair really emphasized fluke differences in both shape and coloring.
On our way home, we came across Biggs orcas in Presidents channel. The T100s gave us a few close passes before we needed to continue our journey back to the dock. The T 100s: Hutchins, Laurel and Estrella. We always like a multi-species day.
June 17th- Naturalist Kara
Whales almost in our backyard today! A lovely passenger noticed some splashing next to the shoreline, and we were able to confirm she’d found orcas. We were the first boat on scene near James Island, where we watched the T124A2s (Elkugu, Agafia and Litton) celebrate some lunch, with a little head stand. The orcas then were riding and fighting the current near Blakely Island and didn’t travel very far. We left this group behind after some good time with them, and continued for our original report to watch the T123s. This is another pod of orcas that have been frequenting Bellingham Bay, but were found this morning just outside of Burrows Island and Anacortes.
The T123s have an adult male in the family, which gave us a good contrast in size compared to our T124A2s that only have young whales and females. The whales gave us a very quintessential Washington experience, with the ferry and Mount Baker in the background for a lovely group surfacing. Great day of two groups of orcas with different backdrops.
June 18 – Naturalist Lauren.
It’s always a good day when you spot orca whales while tied up to the dock, which has been surprisingly common this year. The T123s made another guest appearance in Bellingham Bay this morning. They took us way up north in the bay into super shallow waters. This particular pod likes to hunt off the Nooksack River delta where schools of fish attract harbor seals. Today the delta also attracted some white pelicans; super cool to see this far north. We had some incredible passes by Lucky T123C, and beautiful views of the city of Bellingham with Mount Baker in the background.
We stopped to see some Steller sea lions and they put on a show for us! One large male and two juveniles were flopping and splashing and squishing their way into a cozy cuddle puddle on top of the Sinclair channel marker.
Fortunately for us, the T123’s pushed south into the bay so we were able to catch up with them for a few more surfacings before they totally disappeared! They kept us on our toes all day.
June 19 – Naturalist Lauren
Always excited when the captain says we are going south, so many open beautiful backdrops in each direction. We stopped to see some harbor seals at Eliza Rocks and let the ebb tide push us south into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We had an amazing encounter with the “Alaska Brothers”, T125A and T128, Jetsam and Flotsam. These two mature males caught a harbor seal and brought their lunch to the surface, giving us a quick peak. Lots of red kool-aid in the water. Their party was crashed by the T65A’s, led by Artemis. She had all five of her kiddos with her today! Eight whales in one spot!
I’ve never had whales approach us so quickly. Four members of the 65A’s were much further north, the two further south gave us beautiful examples of how fast orcas can travel via porpoising, a behavior where they get the majority of their body out of the water as air is easier to travel through than water. We got amazing passes by the brothers and the Artemis pod. The 65As hit the brakes while the brothers continued northwest.
We came back home through the middle of the islands, stopping at Whale Rocks for sea lions stretching out. We saw two bald eagles flying about on our way home to the dock and had a beautiful rest of our cruise with perfectly still waters the whole way.
June 20 – Naturalist Lauren
We went north, today and it was so worth it. We had a beautiful run towards the outer islands today. Our adventure took us to Waldron where we caught up with the T100s. They took us east for quite some time. Laurel 100C, is an impressively large whale compared to mom and sibling. We got beautiful looks at this family, they demonstrated how easy it is to pull a 180° turn as they were traversing the wicked current lines.
After the orcas flipped back west, we ventured on and headed to Skipjack Island. We saw three bald eagles and lots of harbor seals hauled out, basking in the sun. We cruised the east side of Orcas Island, hoping to find some more animals. While we weren’t the ones to find the whales, we did spend the end of our trip with the T65As and T64Bs as they were heading south in Hale Passage, where we started our trip! The 65As made a big journey the past 24 hrs because we saw them in the Strait of Juan de Fuca yesterday. Very cool to catch up with them again. Seeing more orcas at the end of our trip was definitely a sweet cherry on top of a wonderful day.
June 21st- Naturalist Kara
Father’s Day today felt like all the wildlife was out to celebrate as well. Almost immediately off the dock, we saw a lovely bald eagle posing on the Post Point buoy, which allowed us a very close look. We usually see bald eagles from a distance, so we were able to appreciate this fully mature bald eagle and the impressive size from an eye level view.
Whales were also cooperative, with the T46Bs( Rakaha with fam and new 2026 calf) and T49C (Nielson) on the south end of Bellingham Bay. These Biggs orca whales were porpoising and zig zagging all over the place. The two youngsters in the group, one born in 2023 and the newest calf from Feb of this year were rolling around showing us their little bellies and tails slapping the water. Watching them was so much fun! One even lunged out of the water with repeated chin slaps, followed up by a spyhop!
We left these orcas behind to seek out harbor seals, stellar sea lions and other wildlife while we ate lunch. Our day allowed us to return later to the same orcas, where they had changed their activity to be travel focused. It was a lovely day, with this group of 10 whales!
We got surprised on our way back to the dock by the T123s sleeping. These whales have been very Bellingham Bay focused lately, and were found at rest in the last 15 minutes of our trip. It was a very successful day, and a happy Father’s Day to all who celebrate!
June 22- Naturalist Kara
It was whale soup out there today! Leaving the dock, we had very favorable reports of orcas close to home, so we started our journey casually, knowing we had time to spare. Stops were made at Eliza Rocks for some sleepy harbor seals, and then the Sinclair buoy where we watched six Stellar sea lions battle for space to rest. These stellars were incredibly vocal, with so many little ones making bitey faces at a single large male who was pretty nonchalant about their shenanigans.
We continued up to Sucia where the whales were reported. We spent an amazing time with the T123s (Sidney, Stanley, Lucky and Darcy) who were travelling with the T124A2s (Elkugu, Agafia and Litton). They were zig zagging and doing circles near Parker Reef, and startled us after a deep dive by popping up right next to the boat! After six minutes of down time, they blessed us with a whale breath shower, and we were able to see their white markings under the water.
While we were with this set of orcas, another boat found the T2Cs just 15 minutes further north! We decided to go check these whales out, because this specific family is rare this far south, and they are descendant of a famous whale that was caught and escaped in 1970. The T2Cs, (Tasu, Rocky, Lucy, Guardian and Yukon) usually spend their time in the Campbell River region of Vancouver Island. This was a pod this crew had never seen before! The youngster of the group, Yukon, was all over the place, causing us to shut off the engines and just hangout with this pod. Yukon got curious and came over to the boat, spinning upside down to give us a peek! Mom and the rest of the family followed, so we tried our hydrophone in the water with no luck for sounds, but some pretty awe inspiring curiosity as we were the only boat on scene. This day felt wildly abnormal and incredibly special. I’m still stunned!
