Anacortes Whale Watch

Highlights

Fin Whale
Gray Whale
Bigg's Killer Whales (T99s, T65As, T137s, T419, T420 & T421)

March 14, 2026 | 1 PM Whale Watch

WOW! Wowowowow! I am still giddy with excitement about the wild whale day we enjoyed today. As we left the dock this afternoon, whale reports were filtering in from down south. A large baleen whale had been sighted in Admiralty Inlet, then gray whales were reported off the Port Townsend Lighthouse, then word of a T-Party gathering in the same zone with rumor that three very unique orcas were amongst them…we had to investigate. We sped out into Rosario, past the Burrows Island Lighthouse and aimed for the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Flocks of rhinoceros auklets and common murres drifted in the gentle swell rolling in from the Pacific, a moody layer of clouds hung over the Olympic Mountains but sun shone down on us throughout our journey.

As we entered Admiralty Inlet, Captain Carl spotted a towering blow at our 12:00. That was no humpback, and certainly not a gray… FIN WHALEEEEEEEE! This wandering rorqual has been popping up throughout the Salish Sea since mid summer. Seldom staying in one place for long, at times going months between sightings, finding this special whale felt like winning the lottery. It was my first time seeing it, but thanks to some unique notches on its dorsal fin, we were able to verify it was the same fin whale. We felt incredibly lucky that it kept its dives short during our encounter, and were blown away by the immense size of this minke look-alike.

We waved goodbye to the fin whale and continued south, hoping to catch up with another unique group. A tight cluster of blows erupted from the water east of the southernmost tip of Marrowstone Island: the T99s, T65As (minus A3 & A5), and three new dorsal fins emerged. These three whales have been taking the whale world by storm this past week. Sighted for the first time (officially) in Anchorage, Alaska almost exactly one year ago, they showed up in Vancouver Harbor last week and then visited Seattle and Tacoma. As of now, no one is certain where they came from or which population they are apart of, though they are suspected to belong to the transient/Bigg’s ecotype. They’ve been given the temporary IDs T419, T420, and T421 by Bay Cetology until more is learned. It was an honor to get to visit with them today, and even more interesting to see them traveling with some of our best-known Salish Sea Bigg’s. We waved farewell to these 12 orcas and made our the back to the north, our whale encounters far from over.

As we approached Marrowstone Point, more inky dorsal fins sliced through the water. It was Jack and Wright (T137A & D). This brother sister duo was traveling south towards the T-party, and we were told the other two members of their pod were nearby. What’s more, we would learn from our fellow PWWA captains that nearly twenty additional Bigg’s were sighted in the area! Are they all here to welcome the new comers? We may never know.

Shortly after leaving the T137s, we had a brief encounter with a sneaky gray whale. It did not look familiar to us, so we will be sending photos off to Cascadia to verify if it is new to the region. I can’t blame it for being subtle with the amount of Bigg’s hanging around. Following our gray whale encounter, we enjoyed a whale finale with the fin. It had worked its way to Partridge Bank, zigging and zagging as it explored.

With the adrenaline from our crazy day finally settling down, we enjoyed a scenic cruise back to Cap Sante.

Oh, and word has it the West Coast Bigg’s may have had a brand new little member join their ranks <3 We’ll be keeping an eye out.

- Sam