9 AM
A strong NE wind brought bumpy seas, as well as aerials from
the whales. We had close to a
dozen humpback whales and a high speed charging minke whale which surfaced
right off our bow. Humpback whales
were displaying a variety of aerials, including breaching, tailbreaching, and
flippering. While there are many
theories (communication, play) to why whales do such aerials, we can’t say for
certain why they do such’, and likely it has different reasons at different
times. It is the rarest behavior
to see, with breaching being seen on average of 1 out of 15 whale watching
trips, so we were quite lucky to get so many aerials on this trip. In addition to the whales, we got a
fantastic look at a harbor seal “bottling” through the waves right next to our
boat.
2 PM
The seas continued to increase as the day progressed, as did
the number of whales. Over a dozen
humpback whales were seen off Peaked Hill, with aerials still being quite
frequent, including repeated flippering.
In addition, we had quick view of kick feeding and
surfacing feeding through bubble nets.
The high latitude cold waters are feeding grounds (as well as a nursery
area). Feeding can take
place at different places throughout the water column, including the bottom/sea
floor, mid water or at the surface-the most dramatic for us to witness is
surface feeding. A hearty group of
passengers made the most of the rocking and rolling seas and the whales!
