Today was just one of those days - one of those super, outstanding, heart-pounding, thrilling, jump-up-and-down sort of days. All three pods have been spending a lot of time up at the Fraser River feeding. It seems like every time we arrive to watch them in the afternoon, their bellies are full. They are fat, happy, and just absolutely juiced with energy. I can't even begin to count the number of breaches we saw this afternoon! When we first arrived with the orcas, we saw most of J pod and some L's in one tight clump. They were absolutely going berserk with spunk (a colorful way of saying that perhaps there was a lot of socializing occurring among the whales...). This continued all afternoon. There were fins, breaches, spyhops, and tail-lobs as far as the eye could see. I'm pretty sure all three pods were present even though I can't recall seeing any K pod whales in all the afternoon madness. Of course that doesn't mean they weren't there playing on the other side of the strait.
After our first incredible pass-by, we hung out with J17 "Princess Angeline" and her family: her kids J28 "Polaris", J35 "Tahlequah", J44 "Moby", and her grandkids little J46 "Star" and J47 "Looker". "Star", "Moby", and "Looker" were playing with each other as if there would be no tomorrow. They were bouncing around "Polaris", "Tahlequah", and "Princess Angeline" like little orca-shaped ping pong balls. After a bit, the mothers seemed to get into the action too because THEY started breaching, spyhopping, and tail-lobbing. I think babies can bring smiles no matter what animal specie you happen to be.
Here are some visual memories from our incredible day:
The whales are coming!:
J1 "Ruffles" does a pass by the Western Prince II:
Playful babies!:
Breach practice:
Use those flukes!:
A very nice spyhop. Can you see the eye? (hint: just below the front of the eyepatch - she's looking at us!):
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