Happy first day of fall!
Today was a wonderful start to the official fall season with 7 humpback
whales, 3 minke whales, and ocean sunfish and several seals!
A humpback whale trio started the trip: Spoon, her calf, and
Canine were resting at the surface, and then Canine woke up a bit, with a few
spy-hops, tail lobs and flicks. The calf rolled around at the surface a bit but
mother Spoon and her calf were pretty sleepy…typical Spoon style!
As we continued on, we passed by a minke whale, a harbor
seal and a gray seal! Then we spotted
another pair of blows- 2 more humpback whales! These were Tornado and Sigma.
This pair has been together for about a week now. Sigma was busy slapping its
flipper on the surface, creating a loud bang, while Tornado did a little
slapping herself but not nearly as much as Sigma.
Soon we found another pair of humpback whales: Geometry and
Chromosome. We’ve seen Geometry quite a bit this season but Chromosome hasn’t
been around since June! Geometry was
chin-breaching when we first spotted him, and then when Chromosome joined, the
two began to slowly swim together just below the surface.
As we were leaving, we spotted 2 minke whales and an ocean
sunfish! We got some great looks at the sunfish in particular and then decided
it was really time to head home.
But then we saw some big splashes not too far
away! A humpback whale was breaching! Sometimes a whale will only breach once
and then it’s done so we didn’t rush over to it. But this whale was breaching
consistently so we altered course to check it out. It was Spoon’s calf causing
the ruckus! Spoon was nearby but pretty mellow, while the calf would
flipper-slap, dive and then breach out of the water. Amazing!!
We passed by another harbor seal on the way home. What a truly
awesome trip! I wish every trip could be
this incredible!
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