Humpback Moms are Good Moms

Aloha,

Guests on Friday’s Wake Up With the Whales saw 4 different pods of Humpbacks. 3 of them were kind of circling around us. After being surrounded for awhile, not knowing which way to look, we found a 4th pod. This one was comprised of Mom, her baby, and a “show-offy” escort. We saw lots of peduncle throws, some tail lobs and a few pectoral slaps from this guy. We guessed he was trying to make a point…but we weren’t sure to whom! And on Saturday’s Wake Up With the Whales, we were treated to a viewing of Mom and her baby. They were resting quietly, and we didn’t want to disturb them, so we just enjoyed the fact that we could share the same ocean with them. We also saw spouts from a couple of other bigger humpbacks, but they were a little too far off shore for us to get to.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: The maternal instinct of the Humpback is so strong that she demonstrates allomaternal behavior. In other words, she’ll even take care of other small animals in danger! In 2009, 2 scientists sailing off the coast of South America watched as a pod of Orcas flipped a Weddell Seal off an ice flow. The seal began swimming towards a nearby Humpback. Just as the seal got close, the whale rolled onto her back, sweeping the 400 pound seal onto her chest. As the Orcas closed in, the Humpback arched her back, which lifted the seal out of the water…unfortunately for the seal, the water rushing off the whale started to wash the seal back into the sea. The scientists were astounded to see the Humpback use her flipper to gently nudge the floundering seal back onto her chest. Moments later, when the orcas had left, the seal slid back into the water and swam to the safety of a nearby ice flow.

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