On our afternoon trip, we had a lovely mom and calf pair! We spotted them a little farther away from where we had the whales this morning. These two were having a calm afternoon out in the Sanctuary. With the calm seas, we were able to get pretty close without disturbing them. The whales also treated us to some good looks by swimming up right next to us a few times! We got some great looks at the calf, while mom went down on some dives. Without a point of reference, our humpback calves can look pretty big (and they are), but when their mom comes up to join them, we can really appreciate just how big these whales can grow to be! It was a gorgeous afternoon out on the water, and the way the light was shining down, we could get some beautiful looks at this mom and her little calf even before they joined us at the surface!
Mom never fluked for us, but it's possible that she was Rune. Rune must have had an encounter with a boat at some point in her life to leave her with the scars she carries now. You can see them towards the front of her body in the picture of the two whales together. The mother is the whale in front. If this whale had lifted up her fluke, I've included a picture of it (taken by Melissa), and that is what we may have seen! We're going to do some more detailed comparisons of our mom's this year who have scars and see if we can determine who this is for sure. If it turns out to NOT be Rune, I'll be sure to post an update!
~Jackie O'Mara, Naturalist
Photos of humpback mother and calf by Jackie O'Mara, photo of Rune's fluke by Melissa Rocha
0 comments:
Post a Comment