Back in 2024 I visited the Salish Sea and saw orcas for the first time. It inspired me, or rather, reinspired me.
I have always been a whale enthusiast, and orcas have always been my favorites. But my first trip was only 10 days, not nearly enough to immerse myself in a world that I had hoped to be a part of my whole life.
So in 2026, I was going to do it properly. 3 weeks in the Salish Sea, a couple days land based whale watching, a couple days kayaking (that dream encounter won’t happen if you don’t put yourself in the right place), and the rest of my days averaged about 5 – 6 hours on the water in boat trips.
Most of these boat trips were with San Juan Safaris. One of those boat trips was the setting of this story.
At the start of my trip, I had a goal. Last time I didn’t see a humpback whale. Well, this time I saw one on day one, and in fact it was my first cetacean for 2 years. So that bucket list whale was ticked off. I then saw a Gray Whale on the 8th of July, which was a pleasant surprise. Their plight has struck me as of late.
But the story I want to tell is of an encounter which to some would seem unusually ordinary to pick for the story. But this one meant something to me. See I have a lot of self doubt, and especially when surrounded with other whale enthusiasts and experts. Don’t get me wrong, im in good company, and I enjoy being surrounded by fellow enthusiasts. But I had to prove it to myself that I had what it takes to be a good citizen scientist and photographer. I tried many times to get gendering shots on some of the orcas who had unknown gender, but never managed it.
On today however, I did something I had never done before. While I had been the one to spot orcas first a couple days before, this was the first time that I was the first person on scene with orcas to positively ID an orca in the field.
We set off at 10am, one of the first boats out to sea. It was a fast boat. We started searching towards the north of the San Juan Islands. I had recently been trying out a new app called Whale Locator. With no sightings anywhere else, I checked the app to see a singular shore based sighting that was 30 minutes old in Canadian waters. I showed this to the naturalist and captain, and they decided to go and check it out. When we were almost there, the captain got alerted by a nearby whale watching boat to the presence of orcas about 10 minutes south of us.
We arrived on scene very quickly, and were one of the first boats all day to see this group consisting of the T123’s T037B’s T037A’s & T037A2. However, when we arrived, only the T123’s were ID’d. The scientist instinct inside me kicked in and I focused on IDing the orcas, using my Panasonic Lumix FZ-1000ii and an ID catalogue on my phone.
It was then that I managed to snap one of the most insane photos I have ever taken. T123 “Sidney”, followed by a non-IDed male, with T123A “Stanley” going the opposite way in the background. I figured out that this male in the foreground was T037A2. At the time IDs were starting to come in for the T037B’s, but I felt elated when I showed my photo to the onboard naturalist who confirmed that I had just IDed T037A2 “Inky”, and by extension the T037A’s.
This was the huge confidence boost I needed! And now I have a new whale to add to my list of favorites!
We had our last looks and I put my non-weather sealing camera away. Then the orcas gave us a really close pass, mugging us for a dive sequence, then we had a breach.
Ladies and gentlemen, never put your camera away until the whales are no longer visible.
– Danny // Whale Talk Podcast
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