Top Row: The T18’s with T19 with Galiano’s unique dorsal, on 8/4/25 by Lincoln Humphry
Next Tow Rows: The T109A’s with active calf on 8/8/25 by Lincoln Humphry
Aug 4th
We were out a naturalist today with a lot of sickness going around. A visit with the T18s in the heart of the islands today, with Galiano, T19B doing a few tail lobs. We saw 3 generations with the T18’s with the matriarch Esperanza being 70 years old. T19 Nootka was also traveling with them. Galiano has a unique left leaning dorsal and moves very circular during surfacings, looking like a tooth in a cog rotating out of the water. Cool to watch.
Aug 5th
We were down our usual naturalist today again. Captain Matt went to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and found Minke whales off Salmon Bank. Minkes are often illusive and we rarely watch them (slinky minkes), so it was lucky to see multiple and they were fairly active.
Aug 6
Morning rain turned to afternoon shine, giving us a beautiful day on the water. We made our first stop at Viti Rocks seeing lots of harbor seals, many cormorants sitting on nests and the sweet songs of glaucous winged gulls providing a full sensory experience. We cruised on to see 4 steller sea lions being sleepily active, making lots of grunting noises at each other trying to get comfy. There was one very large male and three juvenile/females showing off their massive flippers and sensitive whiskers.
Pushing west the skies slowly started to clear and the rain stopped. We made our way through Peavine Pass getting into the heart of the San Juans. Continuing west through Upright Channel we got some great reports out of Victoria of some Biggs killer whales moving east! The currents were moving like a river through Cattle Pass which was fun to see and listen to. Moving south from Cattle, the strait of Juan de Fuca was glassy today. Absolutely beautiful conditions. We kept hauling west until we got into the area where the Biggs were last seen and finally got eyes on them!
We got to witness an epic hunt by the T109A’s. Some of the members of the pod, including the sprouted phase male T109A4, Garret, got so close to Fiddle Rreef, skillfully maneuvering his body in waters as shallow as 5ft deep. The newest member of the pod, T109A8, Weiss, born in 2025 stayed close to mom, Frio/Runaway helped in the hunt which was fun to watch the learning process. Even though it was a short encounter due to the distance we had to cover to get to them, it was one to remember.
Aug 7
We made our way straight out west for early reports of orcas. It was a bit iffy if we would be able to see them, but the stars aligned for us and we saw the T18s and the T109As. We went through the middle of the islands and south through Cattle Pass. We caught them in Haro Straight and followed them north with the flood. The T18s are an interesting group with two very large males who are easy to identify. We were with 9 whales total today, and may have seen some mating behavior. One of the younger calves was showing off their white underside and chin! It was very precious. We ended up going north on our way back home and saw sea lions on the marker north of Lummi.
Aug 8
What a day! Strong reports of Biggs in the heart of the San Juan made us eager to get off the dock this morning. We cruised out of the bay to Viti rocks seeing all the glaucous winged gulls, double crested cormorants, pigeon guillemots and harbor seals hauled out. Moving onwards to check out two sleep steller sea lions who were interrupted by a third sea lion trying to find refuge on the channel marker. Very cool demonstration of how these massive animals haul their bodies vertically out of the water and press their bodies up with their massive fore flippers
We cruised through Peavine Pass into the heart of the San Juan’s and headed south towards Lopez Sound and that’s when things got exciting. We started our slow down coming on scene with the T109A’s led by T109A Frio/Runaway. She was traveling with 5 of her children, Garrett (A4), Argyle(A5), Riley(A6), Weiland(A7) and Weiss(A8). When we came on scene they were traveling east through Thatcher Pass along the north side of Decatur Island. Stunning backdrops and lighting really highlighted their impressive spouts as they hung in the air. We got some stunning looks at this pod, the littlest whale of the group, Weiss, was having a ball doing some porpoising behaviors, chin slaps, back flops, tail slaps and even a spy hop! It was truly an encounter to remember.
But the show wasn’t over. They gave us an incredible finale. The pod started pushing off from the Decatur shoreline and made their way across towards Armitage Island off Blakely. Their path was heading between the island and other boats, so we had to navigate the narrow pass between the small island and Blakely.
As we ventured out of the pass, the orcas pushed closer into Armitage, sort of cornering us between the islands and boats, giving Cptn Michael anxiety. But wow was it worth it. They made an incredible close pass, seeing us off. We then ventured up Rosario and headed to Peapod rocks to check out more seals, pigeon guillemots and gulls. What an epic day!
Aug 9th
It was a lovely day to make it toward Canada this morning, with some early reports of orcas up by Stuart Island, while the rest of the San Juans had a very foggy weather report! We managed to escape all of that fog, by heading north up Hale Passage this morning, with quick stops at Point Migley to look at both harbor seals and Steller sea lions. One sea lion on the buoy decided to go for a swim, and seemingly decided that that was a mistake, as he started immediately looking back for space. After a few quick circles around the navigation marker, he made his way easily back to join the other 3 and settled back in for a nap.
Our journey took us all the way to Turn Point off of Stuart Island, where we came across the T18s again. This pod has been spending a lot of time along the Canadian and US border, which has been nice to have them around. Their behaviour was quite zig-zaggy today as they did a few circles throughout the pass before heading west toward Moresby and beyond. Galiano, T19B was kind enough to pop up out of nowhere, next to the vessel after being under the water for 10 minutes! We got to shut off the engines and watch him pass by with his slightly curved dorsal fin, and the giant knick he has as his identifying markings easily on display. The orcas were mostly milling and travelling today, and we got a lovely spyhop from Spouter, the other big brother!
Harbor porpoise and some jumping salmon, practicing for their inland journey were incredibly abundant today, and we saw them all throughout our trip. It was a very active day in the northern reaches of our range today!
Aug 10
Again to Canada! We were scouting for pinnipeds on the channel markers but didn’t end up seeing any on our way west. We went through the middle, taking Obstruction Pass and Pole Pass. These are two of my favorite spots, both are great areas to slow down and hang out outside. There we saw some harbor seals and many sea birds.
We watched whales off of Sidney Island swimming along the sandy spit, the T109As again. Off the bat we saw one of the younger juvenile’s proposing towards the rest of the family. We think that maybe they could have been hunting, but we don’t know if they ended up successful. We stuck with them towards the Little Group Islands and saw a bald eagle on the shore line, where more hunting happened. We saw a tail of one at some point, but lots of milling and splashing towards the shallow rocks. There were lots of anxious harbor seals hauled out as well.
