Orcas thrill onlookers at Deception Pass

Published 1:30 am Friday, May 1, 2026

A group of 21 orcas turned a gray Monday morning into a spectacle at Deception Pass, drawing crowds and delivering a slow-motion showdown against its notorious strong tidal currents.

The T pods, a group of transient killer whales — from T19s to T124s to T71s and beyond — began their journey around 8:30 a.m., moving east under the Deception Pass bridge. Then they surprisingly turned back west. What followed was a drawn-out, almost theatrical effort. The whales hugged the north shore of Cornet Bay, swam up near Pass Island and repeatedly fought the current as it pushed them away from the bridge.

By late morning, the orcas lingered, inching forward and fighting the current, at times appearing to play as much as struggle. They breached, mouths opening, tails slapping and having a good time. Their display held watchers in place for hours.

It wasn’t until almost 2 p.m. that the orcas finally slipped under the bridge, greeted by more than 30 onlookers who had waited out the long, suspenseful push.

Coupeville resident Kim Parry was teaching a pilates class when she first saw an alert from Orca Network that the pods were spotted. Assuming she’d miss the encounter, she carried on, until she checked again after her class ended at 11 a.m. and realized the orcas were still there. She rushed to the bridge, then hiked closer to the water to get a better view.

Up close, the experience was overwhelming.

“That’s where I got to be with them close enough to hear them breathe and really see them moving under water,” she said. “I almost cried.”

Parry captured the encounter with her Nikon DSLR 7500 and a Sigma 150-600mm lens, but the emotional impact went beyond photos.

“It was one of the best days ever,” she said.

Find Parry’s photos at Whidbey Island Whale Sightings on Facebook.

Other onlookers made even longer journeys. Jami Cantrell, a self-proclaimed “orcaholic,” had recently returned from an expedition to Antarctica to study the impacts on climate change and the rapidly declining sea ice. She still kept her routine of checking Orca Network each morning. At first, the timing didn’t seem promising for the Lakewood resident.

“I was a little bummed because I love a good bridge pass, but this one is a 2.5 hour drive for me,” she wrote in a Facebook post. “I figured there was no way I’d make it in time, so I made breakfast, had some coffee, chatted with a friend and checked updates again.”

An hour later, she saw that the orcas were still in the same spot. Cantrell changed course instantly, leaving home still in her pajamas.

“A little voice in my head said ‘GO, and GO NOW’. So I did,” she wrote. “I had zero expectations of making it in time, but 2.5 hours later I pulled in… and they were still there!”

Racing against the clock, Cantrell grabbed her Sony A92 paired with a Sony 200 to 600 and hurried to the bridge, ignoring the reassurances from others around her that she had time to spare.

“The second I got there, they picked up speed and started making their exit. The timing blew my mind,” she wrote. Her biggest takeaway, she told the News-Times, was to follow her gut feeling more.

Checkout Cantrell’s photos on Facebook or at Jamicantrellphotography.com.

For those who witnessed it, the turquoise water, the pods’ playful breaches and the young calves in the mix made the nearly six-hour-spectacle an unforgettable experience.