Apologies for the delayed posting! What a beautiful calm day on the ocean! Saturday we found ourselves in the midst of at least 8-10 fin whales on Jeffreys Ledge! It was one of those days where we could shut the boat down and have whales surfacing all around us. Often times, we would hear the spouts from nearly a mile away!
After seeing our first spout in the distance, we maneuvered in that direction and before long we saw spout after spout in all directions. Capt Pete was patient. Instead of bouncing back and forth between all the spouts we were seeing, he just sat still and let the whales come to us. At first, we had a single fin whale swim by. Then a pair of fin whales were cruising around, possibly chasing schools of fish.
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| Fin whale cruising by |
Then we spotted what we were sure was a mom/calf pair of fin whales! As we slowly moved close, they disappeared, but then a single adult came right up near us and crossed right in front of our bow! Incredible looks at fin whale #0813!!
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| Fin whale #0813's white lower jaw, blowholes and chevron |
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| Fin whale 0813's unique dorsal fin with 2 notches |
As we continued to wait for the mom and calf to surface together, we were surprised by just the calf hanging out at the surface! The little whale (25+ feet!) rolled on its side, lifted its head up high and repeatedly swam up to our boat!! It is certainly not every day that we are allowed to "babysit" a baby whale while mom is busy feeding! Eventually, mom resurfaced and we then realized that the mom was indeed #0813, the whale that checked us out only minutes before the calf did!
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| Fin whale calf coming in to check us out! |
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| Fin whale 0813 and her calf reunited! |
What a spectacular day! We also got looks at fin whales named Crow and Bolshoi as well as several others in the distance.
Thanks again to everyone for joining us and for supporting Blue Ocean Society's mission by contributing to their research and conservation efforts. As we mentioned, ALL the research images taken by me today are available for sale via a DVD or downloadable link!
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