Lauren | M/V Sea Lion | March 29, 2025 | 12:30 pm
Our Saturday, March 29th Classic Whale Watch and Wildlife tour was a success before even leaving the dock. That’s because 10 minutes before our tour departed, killer whales were found right outside of Friday Harbor! We left the dock and alerted our guests that luck was on their side and instructed them to look for dorsal fins in the distance. Sure enough, not even 15 minutes into our trip we were on scene with 7 Bigg’s Killer Whales. The whales we saw are a family known as the T036A’s and they were traveling with T099B/Holly, an 18-year-old female from another family. What’s special about the T036A’s is that they are a matriline that currently travels three generations strong! The matriarch of this family is T036A/Leland a 35-year-old female. Back in 2022, T036A1/Tierna (Leland’s eldest daughter), gave birth to male calf T036A1A/Drift. Thus, making this travel group multi-generational. T036A/Leland also has three other kiddos. T036A2/Kailas a 13-year-old female, T036A3/Storm a 10-year-old male, and T036A5/Squall a 4-year-old whose sex has yet to be identified. We observed these whales as they headed south in San Juan Channel. This trip was extra special because the whales were acting spunkier than usual. We witnessed several top-side behaviors like proposing, fluke dives, and even a lunging spy hop! Since these whales were right in our backyard, we decided to make a pit-stop at whale rocks to view some Steller Sea Lions. We left the Sea Lions and watched as the whales made their way through Cattle Pass. We then waved goodbye to our sea-panda friends and headed for home! I’d say that was a spectacular way to spend a Saturday.