Despite such setbacks, Mars has continued to produce a healthy and resilient line of offspring (more on that later) and is actually mother to one of our local favorites. If you guessed Nile, you are correct! Mars spent her morning fishing for sand lance with bubbles and powerful surface lunges! We had great views of the her enormous throat grooves which function to maximize the volume of water she can filter, making these energetically costly lunges worth her while.

Nearby, we had a feisty juvenile exhibiting a behavior that I sometimes call (though it’s definitely not scientifically termed) breach lunging (see photo). This little guy could have easily been mistaken as a calf had he/she not been displaying grown up whale feeding behavior. The one-sided facial scarring was also a give-away as it is evidence of bottom side-rolling, another grown up whale feeding behavior. That being said, we saw our fair share of calves rocking fresh facial scars towards the end of last season, likely from mirroring the behavior of their mothers’ feeding, maybe even catching a fish or two in the process.

We also had a set of humpbacks displaying synchronized lunges who put on quite a show for us! One of these individuals showed fresh injuries on its tail stock right behind its dorsal fin. Born last year to Lichen, it is this juvenile’s first season alone on the feeding grounds. Most of these young, returning whales will pick up battle scars as they learn the ropes in this multifunctional, shared habitat. Though I have an idea, it’s unclear as to what specifically caused these injuries.

While we had awesome humpback activity this trip, I can’t forget to mention the gorgeous skim-feeding sei whales we enjoyed yet again Sunday morning. In total, there were seven to eight of these sei whales in the mix with these humpbacks. At one point we found ourselves in a situation I like to call whale soup! No complaints here. That is a dream come true for most whale watchers!

By the afternoon, the sei whales had moved on to brighter pastures (AKA thicker copepod patches). Nonetheless, we found humpbacks aplenty, and many of these were now kick-feeding. Tornado, Strike and Putter were among these humpbacks. We had a lot of fun watching this feeding activity as each whale worked the bait in different ways.

Putter’s behavior was extra exciting to observe as he lifted almost half of his body perfectly vertical out of the water with each kick (see photo). This gave us a clear view of his genital slits reaffirming what we already knew, that he is of course male! Being another offspring of Mars’s and half-brother to Nile, seeing Putter brings us back to the subject of Mars’ matriline. It’s amazing how many generations scientists have been able to track and learn from over the past 40 years. To learn more about this matriline and the anthropogenic threats they have resiliently faced, follow this link to NOAA's page about Nile. 

— Tasia Blough