Olivia Ellman | M/V Kestrel | September 12th, 2024 | 2:00 pm
Today’s Adventure Whale Watch was an amazing, whale filled afternoon through the San Juan Islands. We had heard reports of multiple groups of Bigg’s Killer Whales in the area before leaving the dock, so we left Friday Harbor already excited for what we could find. We began by traveling interisland to the east, looping around Blakely Island to find our first group of whales. We got a quick look at a group of about four Bigg’s traveling away from us, but we didn’t stay with this group because there was another group of around 6 to 8 further ahead of us! As we approached Cypress Island, we could see the group spread out traveling north and even got a surprise closer view at a large male. Some of the families identified in this area were the T137s and the T124A1s, though it was hard to keep track of who was where in all of the activity. We watched these whales traveling for quite some time, before we decided to move on in search of some of the other groups.
The next part of our adventure was an extra surprise, as we had heard a report of a humpback whale towards Anacortes! As we approached the area, we weren’t sure where the whale had ended up since the last report, but our amazing Captain Vaun quickly spotted the whale surface over a mile ahead of us. We caught up with this whale and got some fantastic looks at many fluking dives as it was traveling south in Rosario Strait. After getting some great quality time with this whale, we decided we may as well end the trip how we started and go search for the other big group of Bigg’s that we hadn’t seen yet. We traveled west and caught up with the group in between Orcas and Shaw Islands. There were approximately nine whales split between two groups, one family of three believed to be the T101s and the other larger group to be the T37As. We got more amazing looks at these whales as they traveled along the shoreline, and even could see a few splashes in the distance! The surface activity didn’t last long as they continued to cruise along, changing direction and heading back to the east. We watched them pass right by the Shaw ferry terminal before it was time for us to wave our last whales goodbye and head back towards Friday Harbor. This was an amazing way to end to our day, giving us the perfect killer whale sandwich of a trip.
Check out our SmugMug to see photos from our trips on M/V Osprey at https://sanjuansafaris.smugmug.com/.