Welcome back to
Conscious Breath Adventures’ Cruise Report, this one for our eighth week of the 2016 season. It was an international gathering this week with guests from the UK, Norway, Switzerland, Australia and even the US. It is always fun to throw everyone into the mix and meet some whales together!
We could not have asked for better weather, which was some of the nicest of the season so far, with light winds and sunny skies for the entire week. The whales gave us a wonderful variety of behaviors to enjoy, too…
Breaching Singers and Curious Moms
Our first afternoon got off to a great start. One of our whaleboats played a little hide and seek with a singing whale which we could hear from the deck of the boat but could not locate in the water. It finally revealed itself very dramatically with a big breach close by the boat.
Our other boat had a much different experience when a mother, calf and escort began to interact very closely with the boat, passing slowly underneath, often close enough that if we wanted to we could have reached out and touched it with a GoPro pole (we didn’t! click photo, left, for larger view). Mom circled for more than ten minutes before we entered the water for another ten minutes in what was perhaps one of the most intimate interactions of the season. She circled up beneath the swimmers and stopped, hovering just below, using her pectoral fins like giant paddles to twist and turn herself below, rolling on her side repeatedly to look up at us, while during all of this the calf and escort circled and dove nearby (click photo, lower right, for larger view).
Words really are inadequate to convey the emotion of the experience, which was just incredibly moving, that these three whales would take such and interest in us. Why? The question is always why..? The answer is elusive but reminds us of why so many of our guests return year after year. They are simply amazing creatures to be near.
Some Healthy Coral
We’ve been having great success finding and swimming with singing male humpbacks and today we had another fine performance that was shared by all our guests. We also have the same question about singers: why? In the past the popular theory was that the males sang to attract a mate, but research has shown that when another whale responds, it is often another male! New thinking is that perhaps singing is a way to establish territory, much as it can be with birds. In any case, whoever figures out why whales sing and what they are communicating will be both rich
and famous!
With ideal conditions, we also took an opportunity to snorkel around one of the hundreds of coral heads that make up the Silver Bank’s barrier reef. Unfortunately, the reefs here, as with many coral reefs worldwide, are in bad shape, with minimal live coral cover. But happily there are patches of health, like this elkhorn coral, which are improving from year to year, that give us some cause for optimism. (click photo for larger view)
A "Teenage" Whale
The diversity of action continued on Tuesday as our boats again had very different experiences.
Fluke, with Ben guiding, tracked a mother and calf, with the mother throwing off a series of huge peduncle throws, which are always a thrill to see at close range. Peduncle throws are second only to regular breaches for their sheer power and excitement and because of that are sometimes referred to as tail breaches. (click photo for larger view)
Meanwhile, on
Pec, Gene’s folks had an interesting
interaction with a young male sub-adult whale. Sometimes these young whales can be like restless teenagers, goofing off and playing around, and this one was happy to have
Pec as a diversion for more than an hour. He would circle toward us, twist and roll, splash and swish, pass just below, and spyhop next to the boat. He did the same when we were in the water, coming in briefly to cavort before moving back out, just to return again moments later. (click photo for larger view)
A Silver Bank Classic
Today we had one of those classic Silver Bank humpback whale encounters when all of our guests were able to have an extended in-water interaction with a sleepy mother and her playful calf. It started with Gene’s boat tracking the pair, watching as the mother performed several energetic peduncle throws. A short while later she settled and we were all able to swim with them but it was when Ben’s folks got in the water that he recognized her by her fluke as the peduncle-throwing mother from Tuesday. It is interesting to see the same whale engaged in the same behavior two days in a row. (click photo for larger view)
A Four-Whale Swim
On our last afternoon on the water there was still more variety for our guests. Ben’s boat had a swim with a mother and calf who had two escorts in attendance, allowing them to swim with four whales at once! Usually the fourth whale would be a challenger to the primary escort, unsettling the situation, but these whales were at ease giving everyone a remarkable opportunity for a four-whale swim.
Meanwhile Gene’s folks found a singer and had one
of the longest performances of the season, in the water and out for nearly an hour each. We took advantage of the perfect conditions to make a recording of the song, even better than last week’s. At one point we drifted over the top of the whale and the song was so powerful we were floating on waves of music which made the deck of our whaleboat vibrate under our feet, the song clearly audible to our unaided ears. It was a wonderful way to end a lovely week on the Silver Bank.
With just two weeks left until this 2016 season wraps up we are heading back out and will report on the action next weekend. Thanks again for reading and best whale wishes.
Sincerely,
Capt Gene
