August 9th: Js, Ks, and Ls

On the morning of August 9th we were again lucky enough to meet up with J-Pod, K-Pod, and many L-Pod whales right at Open Bay heading north. The whales were in numerous large, highly social groups - an awesome sight that has been the norm this August.

As is sometimes the case, a lot of the adult males from different family groups were hanging out together.

L92 Crewser (left) and J34 Doublestuf lunging

J27 Blackberry had other things on his mind, however...he was in hot pursuit of K20 Spock.

J27 Blackberry

As the whales rounded Henry, they were hugging the shoreline as they so often do. It's awesome to watch but hard to get photos, because they blend in so well to the rocks behind them! We watched as the J22s, L72s, and J28s swam along the shoreline together.

The whales really went wild as they fanned out north of Henry Island. They moved way in to the east so they were far away from us, but that didn't make the site any less impressive and they just "went off" into bouts of breaching, cartwheeling, tail slapping, and spyhopping.

Big group of whales on the move, with the splashes of two cartwheels still visible

Of course the photos I snapped that would have shown more of the action all came out blurry....so you'll have to use your imagination. But it had been a while since I've seen them that active.

As we pulled off to head back to the harbor, we were surprised to come across one more trailing group of whales: the K12s and the L4s.

One of them cartwheeled right alongside of the Center for Whale Research boat, almost completely obscuring it:

It was another gorgeous day on the water!