First Humpback and Killer Whales of 2026

January 13, 2026

On January 13 our team set out on the water with cinematographer Ryan Wilkes to collect footage for an upcoming docuseries. We headed north into swanson channel and were amazed by the marine life we observed. The entire channel was covered in ancient murrelets, as far as we could see. Steller sea lions were swimming mid channel, and we knew there must be bait in the area which might have attracted a humpback whale. After observing for a few minutes we located a solo humpback milling to the west of us! We obtained photos of it’s dorsal, and waited for it to fluke. After a few dives and only a partial fluke photo we decided to leave it be on it’s way and headed up towards active pass to begin pinniped haul out monitoring. This humpback whale has yet to be identified.

Once we travelled through Active Pass, we were on our way to the Belle Chain Islets when we saw dorsal fins in the distance, this time they belonged to a trio of killer whales. They were slowly travelling south and we stopped so they could continue in front of us. After they had gained distance we continued towards the islets to count sea lions. These killer whales were identified as T124A4, T124A4A, T124A1A.

All photos are taken with a 200-600 zoom lens.