Top Row: T101s/100’s passing Friday Harbor on 8/28/26
Bottom Row: T99’s in Bellingham Bay on 8/26./28
Aug 24 – Naturalist Lauren
A gorgeous day on the water. We headed south in the bay, wrapping around the south side of Sinclair and the north side of Cypress island. We headed into the heart of the San Juan’s to then head north towards Waldron. We caught up with the T49A’s, led by Nan! With her, 5 of her kiddos. We had an incredible pass by this pod getting an exceptional view of how big these animals are, how different their dorsal fins are shaped and how curious they are! They may have been hunting while we were in scene with them, but Nan being 40, is an efficient hunter, most of which is done under the surface. We saw many harbor porpoise in the area with them. They took us east towards Patos before heading north which is where we left them. The ride home was beautiful seeing some large Steller sea lions, harbor seals and beautiful conditions!
Aug 25th- Naturalist Kara
We spotted orcas in the bay this morning before we’d even left the dock! What a great and easy surprise for the day. We made our way out to join the T99 Biggs orca whales as they combed the waters of Bellingham bay looking for food. This family was joined by a single whale from the T37As, Crinkle! This particular whale is fun and easy to identify due to the shape of their fin being a little squat, leans to the side and has a big top notch.
Our day was a lucky day, because as we left the T99s in the bay, we received reports of a singular male orca around Anacortes. We cruised south while we served lunch to come on scene with T65A5, Indy. He was zig-zagging all over Bellingham Channel and led us back north toward home. We had two very unique encounters, with close passes, for a lovely day out on the water.
Aug 26th- Naturalist Kara
Another lovely day in Bellingham Bay with the T99s. This family decided to overnight in the bay, and were easily found from the dock again this morning. We were able to spend time with them before lunch, watching the family spread out looking for food. The orcas were spread out for about a mile, so we picked a single individual to watch, which was T99C Barakat! He’s a big sprouting male, just 15 years old and reaching peak maturity. His fin makes him easily recognizable and is incredibly wobbly when he comes up to the surface.
We left these whales behind to take a lunch break for ourselves and seek out other wildlife. With a pause at Eliza Rocks for cormorants and harbor seals, and another stop at the Sinclair buoy for Stellar sea lions, we then made a big swing into Rosario Strait to look for potential different whale species. No luck with spouts, but close enough to home, we swung back into Bellingham Bay where the T99s were still hanging out! Behavior had changed for this second sighting, and we got to watch them all travel close together in a tight knit group, with a sudden stop for a nap! Overall, a great double encounter!
Aug 27th- Naturalist Kara
The last bird cruise of the year, started off with some rough weather in the bay and some low bird activity, but by the time we hit Lopez Island, our luck drastically changed, We started off with amazing close looks at marbled murrelets in McArdle Bay off of Lopez Island, but later one of the first birds we saw upon arriving at Smith Island was a Nazca Booby! This is an incredibly rare bird for the area, belonging on the South American west coast and up into Mexico. With that special treat, we went searching for Tufted puffins, and had a great day with 8-10 separate birds. American White Pelicans flew in as we were finishing up our trip at the marine reserve, and we managed to get a lot of bucket list birds for passengers!
With a huge cherry on top, we cruised by a little pod of harbor porpoise before coming on scene with the T99 Biggs orcas at Anacortes. We were surprised by a beautiful synchronized triple jump from the elder 3 females, a sight I’ve never seen before! It was an amazing shock, followed by a hunt and some big breaches by the male, T99C Barakat! Quite the closer for our last trip of the season.
Naturalist Lauren
An interesting day on the water: A choppy bay crossing got us in the spirits of a wild day. We had heard reports of the T99’s southbound near Vendovi Island. By the time we were underway, this pod of five, plus T37A4 (6 total) decided it was the day that orca whales swim into Swinomish Channel. Captain Michael, in his 20+ years of tours in this area, has never witnessed orcas going that far into the north end of the channel before. They made it to the twin bridges before they turned around and headed north. By that time, we were able to catch up with them right outside of Cap Sante Marina in Anacortes. They gave us some great looks at how different all the individual dorsal fins are and a hint of their strength and power with some tail slaps.
After our incredible encounter with the 6 Bigg’s orca whales, we ventured northward up Rosario Strait. We explored who was out and about on Peapod Rocks seeing lots of harbor seals, gulls, two mature bald eagles, one juvenile, and a Turkey vulture. We even got to see 3 Steller sea lions have a nice nap on boulder reef channel marker before making our way back to the dock.
8/28 – Naturalist Elliot
Great day on the water. We left the dock in cloudy conditions but still mid-sixties so not too cold, and perfect spotting weather. No whales reported closer than Active Pass, so we got behind binoculars and started scanning. By the time we hit Rosario though, a report came in of killer whales in Spieden Channel! We set our sights west and went through the middle and caught up with the T101’s and the T100’s a Group of 5 whales who’ve been seen traveling together more and more over the past month.
Its an interesting group and the topic of some discussion lately. T101/Reef is presumed to be the mother of T100/Hutchins. Until recently T101 typically travelled with her 2 sons rush and lagoon. But for the last several months The 101’s have been missing rush. We wont know for a long time Rush’s final fate but the general consensus is that he may be dead. At 33 years old Rush is not particularly old, but as we’ve seen more and more lately a 33 year old bull could very well be at the end of his life. Regardless it’s been interesting to see Reef traveling with her daughter, and grandchildren Laurel and Estrella! We watched them move south in the San Juan Channel for about an hour before turning home. We saw sea lions at Boulder Reef and seals at Viti on the way.
8/29 – Naturalist Lauren
So many whales today! We headed south and spent time with the T100s (Hutchins, Laurel and Estrella) and T101s (Reef and Lagoon) in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Gorgeous conditions and a good chunk of time with these two pods. Very cool composition of two matriarchs and three sons.
On our way home, we were tipped off by the Lummi ferry captain of more orcas southbound in Hale Passage. As we got to Bellingham Bay we spent some time scanning, and found the T99s (Bella, Holly, Barakat, Puck, Qwiin qwiin oo quii la) plus T37A4 (Crinkle). It looked like they definitely found some food with lots of directions changes, bubbles and some good splashes.
Unique coincidence seeing the 99s, 100s and 101s all in the same day.
8/30 – Naturalist Elliot
First double hitter in two months! We started the day with no reports to look for, and a tough decision to make. We stopped at the Sinclair cans to see the sea lions, and as we were watching them we saw spouts in the distance behind! Less than a mile away and headed towards us were the T99’s & T37a4. We watched them kill something almost immediately upon finding them, and then they popped up close twice in a row! We stayed with them for a while and they began a typical resting pattern and we took off north to go meet our sister boat the Salish Sea, who had found a humpback on their way to Sucia Island. Thanks to a great fluke shot from SJC legend Kurt Leipold we were able to identify this whale as Yogi. Yogi spent lots of time at the surface, doing short shallow dives but still fluking every time! Such a great day.
