9-21-14 Getting To Know You

Sunday, September 22nd
...I went for a scan...they are still here!...not sure who, but I could see a couple whales way down island, foraging...
...out on Maya's Westside Charters...we come upon DoubleStuf J-34 and his mom, Oreo J-22...they were spread a quarter mile...just two whales...we knew there were more, but as we went down island there wasn't a whale in sight!
...then up ahead we saw a few...but where was everyone else?...Moby J-44 and Sonata K-35 were having a great time...

...one of the passengers asked some questions about a male whale's male parts, commonly referred to as a sea snake, and did it hang outside of their body?...so we had a few chuckles at the thought of all the things something that could be up to about five feet long could get hung up on...chuckle, chuckle...so I said something about what does hang out are the pec fins on an orca, not really meaning anything...but two minutes later Moby showed us!

...sometimes all you have to do is think it!

...we heard there was a humpback whale in the vicinity so we saved time to go see it...on our way to see the humpback we heard that the whales who had gone up north last night were coming back down and were coming fast!...
...and we heard that someone spotted a very large group of Pacific white sided dolphins...we'd try to fit that in on the later trip...that is if those dolphins were still in the area...things were getting wild!

...we watch the humpback for a few minutes but I doubt enough info for an idea as to who this humpback is...

...we were soon off to find the whales who were coming down...then we hear that they had already passed by Snug Harbor entrance...we caught up to the J14s...that's the family group that was in 'stealth mode' yesterday...

...so by the afternoon we thought that all the whales were now down south...we come upon a few whales figuring it would be some who had come down earlier...it was DoubleStuf J-34 who met up with Tika K-33, who was one of those who had come down from the north...

...Cookie J-38 was in shore with some of the J14s and Oreo J22 his mom...

...someone off shore breached four times... 

...then to the LAGS...they were feeding, going in huge circles...it was estimated there were a couple hundred but impossible to actually count them all!...here's one of the hookiest fins I've ever seen...

...then back to the whales...some were coming off shore and a large group was coming back in toward shore...we went out to meet them...first I see Blackberry J-27 and his sister and brother...and a few other whales...then I get a glimpse of something tiny - "there's the baby"!!!  I yelled out - of course!

...that was totally unexpected...but the baby is getting to meet more members of the Community, so no telling which group this little family will be with next time we see them...I just love watching this!

...off to the east of this group were Mystery L-85, Matia L-77 and Joy L-119 - I have hardly seen the L12s at all this year...

...we left them heading back in and back down island...

...until next time...