A remarkable day in San Juan Channel with 4 encounters and 20 individual orcas

Yesterday's afternoon on the water was so remarkable it deserves its own mini-map as a summary!

First we found the T36A1s and T99B heading south down San Juan Channel. Last fall, T99B had been reported with a potential calf, but since she has been dispersed from her family in recent months we hadn't heard an update on her yet in 2025. It was great to see her, though a little sad to see that there was not a calf with her!

While this trio of whales stopped to feed near Whale Rocks, two more dorsal fins came into view among the chop! This turned out to be T30A Sequoia and T30C Salix, who interestingly hung about 1/4-1/2 mile away from the prey-sharing whales while we were on scene. We heard that later on they did, in fact, meet up properly with the T36A1s and T99B.

As we headed back north in San Juan Channel we passed T49C Neilson who had come west through Cayou Channel in the morning. He didn't seem to be going anywhere in a hurry, and in fact was doing some kelping outside Friday Harbor.

We went up to Spieden Island planning to look at other wildlife, but as we approached Green Point more fins were spotted to the north. We immediately recognized the T19s and T49As who have been spending a lot of time together of late, but there were even more whales in the mix! It turned out that the T124As with the T124A4s were also there.

By evening the large group from the north was heading south and the smaller group was heading north, so we can only speculate if they all met up for an overnight party or if they bypassed each other. As often happens after a bustling day in one location, though, San Juan Channel has been very quiet so far today!