Here is the weekly wildlife sightings recap for our tours from June 2nd-14th:
We have been enjoying sunshine, warmer weather, and LOTS of diversity in the wildlife species around the Salish Sea! With some of the lower tides we’re experiencing around this time of the year, some of the intertidal creatures that aren’t often visible have also been making an appearance. It’s a GREAT time to get out on the water!
Bigg’s killer whale family groups have been pretty abundant the last two weeks, and we have been lucky enough to spend time with many of them. Of note, the T64Bs and the T65As have continued to travel with each other, foraging around the Hood Canal are of Puget Sound, but also occasionally popped out to Admiralty Inlet and the Strait. It’s been interesting to see them spend this extended amount of time together, but also to continue doing a circuit–they must be finding some good food resources down around that area! To add a cherry on top, T65A5 “Indy,” who usually travels away from his family group, was seen in the mix on occasion, making for 9 individuals in the completed group. Other Bigg’s matrilines that we encountered throughout these tour dates were: the 36/36Bs (6) T68s (2), some of the T68Cs (3), T86A1s with T86A3 (3), the T99s (5), T100s (3), T123s (4), and the T124A2 (3) and T124A4s (3) making for a whopping 41 individuals over the course of the last twelve days!
On the baleen whale front, all 3 of our most encountered baleen whale species were seen with our first-of-the-year minke whales, a couple lingering gray whales, and a variety of humpbacks, including
BCZ0298 “Split Fin” traveling with BCX1675 “Strike” (encountered multiple trips); humpback whale BCZ0410 “Anvil,” and our first mother and calf pairing of the season BCX1057 “Divot” with her 2026 baby. A couple singular humpbacks were unidentified (no fluking while we were on scene), but in all, a great start to the summer season where we are likely to encounter more individuals.
A notable encounter took place Saturday afternoon’s trip on June 14th, when coming back from a successful wildlife trip, a breaching humpback whale was seen just south of the Anacortes ferry lanes! A lottery-draw, PNW iconic capture of the breaching whale with Mount Baker and a Washington State Ferry in the background is a once-of-a-lifetime scene–and we are so glad to have been able to share that with guests onboard!
We’re looking forward to seeing what the next week brings us on the wildlife front and hope you can join us!
