Written by Alison
on Aug 05, 2026

Sea Otter and Whales

Sea Otter and Whales

July 23, 2026 PM – Today we started with a stop to see our somewhat rare visitor to the inland waters of Washington, a Sea Otter. We do not know how long he will stay but today it looked like he was finding lots of good food. From there we headed east, Captain Bethany had plan so off we went. As we crossed into Rosario Strait we found a Steller Sea Lion warming up on the green channel marker. We took a wide loop across Rosario looking for animals, eventually we circled back around to the Pea Pod Rocks where we found loads of Harbor Seals hauled out on the shoreline. Meanwhile, Captain Bethany had been keeping tabs on the 2 Bigg’s Killer Whales that had been spotted in that area. We started our encounter along the southeast Orcas Island shoreline. The whales continued south to the gorgeous undeveloped area of Blakely Island. The two whales are brothers, 20 year old T77C – Neftali and T77E – Misneach who is 10. They have been traveling separately from their mother and sister this summer. They were surfacing high, sometimes upside down, and stopping to investigate possible animals to hunt. While we were watching a Bald Eagle took off from a nearby rocky islet. There were lots of big smiles as we headed back to Friday Harbor.

Photographer and Naturalist: Alison Engle – Instagram: @AlisonEngleArt – Website: www.AlisonEngle.com – Instagram: @WesternPrinceWildlife – Facebook: Western Prince Whale Watching Adventures

Written by Alison
on Aug 05, 2026

Sea Otter and Whales

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