This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 at 10:58 pm 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.
While momma watched closely baby humpback whale worked out on the surface about 20 feet away, easily within reach of mom’s long pectoral fins. Researchers tell us that when babies are new, they are not allowed any further away than the length of mom’s pectoral fins, which are 13 – 20 feet in length, depending on the age of the mom. As the little ones grow (about 1 foot every 4 weeks), gaining about 80 – 100 pounds per day, they are allowed the privilege of freedom, sometimes seen venturing about 50 yards away from mom. That may sound like quite a distance, but if there were any trouble, mom would be there in seconds with one or two beats of her massive tail.
This mother’s behavior was different today. It is very unusual to see just the tip of the rostrum sticking out while remaining vigilant. If we hadn’t been there before she surfaced, we may have called this behavior a ’spy hop’, but it wasn’t. The whole time baby worked out tail slapping and peduncle throwing, she kept her position and watched. Water clarity was about 100 feet, so there was no doubt she could see everything her little one was doing.
She tolerated us as well. We shut down at 100 yards, but she continued her approach stopping when she was about 50 yards away. From that position we were allowed to watch the calf as he/she struggled to learn the tail behaviors that mom had shown only moments before. It was her instructions that we noticed over 1 mile away and had us heading to them in the first place.
Humpback whales always thrill, educate, and amaze us. We’re going out again tomorrow and would love to have you on board to watch the whales, which belong to us all.
