Biggs/Transient Orcas T49A's with T19 & T19B Boundary Pass

May 31, 2024 – After casting off we made a decision to head North. A pod of Biggs/Transient orca were northbound at the top of Haro Strait including the T49A’s (minus T49A1 plus T49A2) with T19 and son, T19B. We had a young passenger on board with a dream of seeing whales so we pressed on hoping for the best. As we were nearing Flattop Island the orcas made a hard right into Boundary Pass. Suddenly we felt lucky and planned a course to intercept them. Everyone was all smiles as the fins slowly approached.

T19, T19B and T49A2 were close to Blunden Island moving east while the others were slowly resting traveling east. Orcas with Mt Baker in glassy seas couldn’t be beat. At one point we saw T49A2 charging across Boundary Passage towards the rest of his family, but didn’t see him join up. Eventually we broke off from the larger group to see the others as they approached Java Rocks. To our surprise T49A2 was back with T19 and T19B. Stunning views as they passed Java Rocks and the beautiful Saturna Island shoreline. T19B aka “Galiano” passed between us and Mt Baker giving us a memorable photo op.

We left the whales at Monarch Head and turned back south. We paused to enjoy harbor porpoise surfacing everywhere all around us. They were lucky the orca must not have been hungry! As we neared Sandy Point we heard a couple other whale watching boats had found more orca including the T123’s and T86A1’s who joined the T49A’s. T19 and T19B kept going North at East Point and we heard T19B was breaching. Maybe it was their way of saying goodbye or communicating when they’ll see each other again. Who knows! That group of orca followed our course about 2 miles behind us eventually making their turn into Spieden Channel. We dropped off our passengers back to Orcas Island and hurried back to Friday Harbor.