Aloha,
Our weekend of Whale Watching started with Friday’s Breakfast with the Whales, where among other things, we got to watch a competitive pod of 6 whales (including a Mom/Calf pair). Mom did a good job of keeping her baby in front of her and away from the pursuing males. On our 10:00 Whale Watch, we heard some incredibly loud sounds when we dropped our hydrophone in the water, including a “new sound” for this year. We’ve just started hearing a very guttural grunting sound, and based on how often we’re hearing it, these singers must really be liking their new tune.
On Saturday’s 10:00 Whale Watch, we hadn’t even left the harbor when we saw a baby whale tail lobbing repetitively. This little guy was lobbing backwards and forwards, and then backwards again, making us wonder if he was trying to twist around or was just really uncoordinated. We also got to see an interesting interaction between a Cow/Calf pod and a pod of about 10 Spinner Dolphins (including a dolphin calf that was only about 2 feet long). The dolphins spent a lot of time trailing the whales, but at one point they got in front and rode the Humpback’s bow wake. The dolphins did lots of spins and leaps all around the whales which must have amused the baby whale too, since while the dolphins were busy, baby took a roll right down Mom’s rostrum (head) .
Sunday’s Breakfast with the Whales and 10:00 Whale Watch can be summarized with just one word: “BREACH”! It seemed like everywhere we looked during both cruises, we got to watch a whale breach out of the water. Calves were breaching…their mom’s were breaching…single whales were breaching…and we even saw a couple of double breaches! We also deployed the hydrophone on each of these trips and heard lots of singing and vocalizing, so I guess there must have been as much activity going on underwater as there was at the surface.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:Researchers report that Humpbacks in Alaska can consume a ton of food in a day. The Humpbacks’ diet consists mainly of very small fish like herring, capelin, sand lance, and krill. Based on the calorie count of herring, a Humpback in Alaska is consuming 1,500,000 calories each day!