Today on board the Cetacea for the 1:30 whale watch, we traveled to the Southwest corner to search for whales. Upon arrival, we began spotting blows in all directions. We first spent a few surfacings with 2 unassociated humpbacks. First we saw Aswan, but it quickly dove down. Another individual surfaced nearby, that we thought was Aswan, but turned out to be Tear. It seemed as if the two individuals were alternating logging at the surface and fluking. We also spotted several other humpbacks in the area.

Triple dive

Perseid's fluke

Then what we thought was a good whale watch quickly turned into a spectacular one. We moved a little farther east to find four associated humpbacks. It was Perseid and her calf and Milkweed and her calf. While the moms were down on their short 3-4 minute dives, the calves “played” at the surface. They were rolling around at the surface, pectoral slapping, and spy hopping!

Spyhop with a great view of the tubercles, or stove bolts, on the whale's chin area

More spyhoping

Passengers were treated to spy hop after spy hop. In total we saw 8-10 spy hops from these two calves! Perseid’s calf continued to be curious of the vessel, like it’s been for the past couple of days, and both calves approached us on multiple occasions! The entire group even swam under boat a couple times. Giving everyone amazing close looks at these large animals.

Picture perfect

A close encounter!

See attached photos of some the remarkable spy hops we observed. While with these 4 whales we spotted Pele and Pepper out in the distance. It’s great to know that all these whales are still around. I hope they stick around for a while longer.

Best,
Hannah and Jess