Those lucky enough to visit Point Robinson Friday afternoon saw a rare and remarkable scene in the waters off-shore: Some 80 killer whales, members of all three Southern Resident pods, passed by, cavorting, breaching and spy-hopping while children squealed and adults exclaimed.

Mark Sears, a West Seattle resident and longtime whale researcher, said such “super pods” come together about once a year. But what was special Friday was not simply the sheer number of whales; it was also their behavior.

Instead of feeding, the whales, he said, were socializing. As a result, those on the shores saw dramatic leaps, synchronized dives and courtship behavior, much of it extremely close to the shore.

“It was just one great big social event,” said Sears, who was in a boat with his daughter Maya collecting fecal matter as part of his research for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “Every conceivable behavior whales display we observed that day. It was quite remarkable.”

Sears said the whales — which were listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act in 2005 — were likely on the trail of chum salmon and other prey.

“It was a hunting trip,” Sears said

Both Sears and Ann Stateler, who runs the Vashon Hydrophone Project, which records whales’ underwater vocalizations as part of an ongoing research effort, said nearly every member of the three pods that make up the Southern Resident group were present. Easily, both said, there were 80 whales or more.

“It was an extraordinary encounter, even for those of us who have been studying these whales for decades,” Stateler said.

And it was an extraordinary encounter for Islanders who stood on the shore, such as Andrew Uber, who snapped about 600 photos. Uber, an amateur photographer who lives with his wife at Glen Acres, said his wife saw the whales heading south from their back deck. Uber, his wife and her parents, who were visiting from India, jumped in a car and headed to Point Robinson. They got there in time to watch the whales pass by, a migration that lasted 20 minutes.

“I’ve taken a lot of photographs. But I’ve never had my heart pounding quite like that,” Uber said. “It was incredible. I’ve never seen anything like it.”