This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 at 12:13 am and is filed under About, Adventure Cruises, History, Information, Migration, Sites, Snorkeling, Snuba, Watching, Whales. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Big mothers can have enormous calves, small mothers have much smaller ones. I always smile seeing the faces of visitors show great surprise as we explain that small is a relative term. A small mother humpback could still be pushing 35 – 40 feet and the calf would be 1/3 her length, weighing in at about 1 ton or more at birth. We know from researchers that mother humpbacks will never leave their young ones, but the young leave mom when they are ready, at around 1 year old.
This calf appeared to be several hours old, or more. We know they start their work-out programs right after birth, and perfect their taught behaviors over time. This little one was practicing the breach. To execute a breach correctly, 2/3 of the body must be out of the water. This calf was a perfectionist. He/she was determined to do just that, or even better. Several times he did a marlin impression by leaping and clearing the entire body, tail and all, much to the delight of all on board. Each leap brought joyful exclamations, shutter clicks and much laughter from all whale watchers. The calf looked as if he, or she, was enjoying the workout as well.
As with nearly every day this season, except for only 2, the whales decided to approach and do some people watching. We were shut down and waited quietly, most of the passengers talking with hushed voices, anticipating each blow as they got louder with each tail stroke. They approached to about 30 feet away and paused, the calf rolling up to look at everyone. Mother moved slowly, but deliberately up our port side and out to the bowsprit area when passengers leaned over gleefully, some taking pictures, some quietly watching, and some exclaiming out loud how amazing this encounter was.
As for me, I am always caught up in the moments, happily taking pictures and answering questions. Every day we learn from these wonderful, endangered animals. I fervently hope we can save them. If you’re heading this way, please come out with us. We go nearly every day, weather and conditions permitting. It is a whale freeway out there! Fun awaits.
