What a gorgeous trip this morning! Minke whales, humpback whales, fin whales, oh
my! A harbor seal and pod of harbor porpoises were also spotted! At one point, all the whale species were in
the same area, surrounding our boat! Not
often do we get images of two different species of whales in one photo!
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| Fin whale swimming to the right, Humpback whale swimming to the left! |
I’m still working on identifying the two fin whales,
but our humpback whales were Hornbill, Clamp, Nine and Milkyway! At least one
more humpback was also around.
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| Minke whale |
 |
Humpback whale |
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| Hornbill |
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| Humpback whale |
 |
| Fin whale |
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| Finwhale |
This afternoon, we headed back to the whale hot spot. Even charter
fishing boats were swinging by to check out the whales! Clamp had joined up
with Nine and Milkyway, and when we first arrived, two of them breached clear
out of the water! Amazing! Then Clamp began to lift her big flipper out of the
water and smack it down on the surface.
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Humpback whale flipper |
Both breaching and flipper-slapping are presumed to be communication behaviors, but just what they were communicating still remains a mystery. Numerous minke whales were spotted throughout the trip and Hornbill was seen blowing clouds of bubble to corral his prey.
A fin whale was seen briefly but we were not able to
relocate it. Before heading home, we
passed through the area where the humpback trio was, and to our surprise, the
group had increased in size! A fourth humpback whale had joined in! I know that I
know this whale but the name is eluding me at the moment. Check back for
updates!
Harbor porpoises were also seen on our way home, rounding
out the adventure. Awesome day!
I took my family on the afternoon trip. It was their first time to ever go (my third time) and it was a highlight of our vacation for everyone! Kids from Colorado and Arkansas rarely have the opportunity to see whales!
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