MonicaA curious Humpback Whale in search of some company
There is this group of Humpback Whales that migrate to the American East coast (off of Boston) and spend quite some time in Stellwagen Bank, in the Massachusetts Bay.
The Humpbacks are coming from the warm waters of the Dominican Republic where they socialize and breed during the winter months. Then, from May to October, they spend their time feeding on the abundant plankton and small schooling fish that colder waters have to offer.
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“A world where every whale and dolphin is safe and free”
-Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC)-
I was lucky enough to spend 3 full months on the whale watching boats in Cape Cod Bay whilst doing an Internship for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation. I learnt so much during my internship, from on-field research, communication with the public and data analysis in the office.
Out on the water, I learnt and mastered the photo-identification technique, one of the most common and non-invasive methods used by researchers. Migration patterns, social structure, population size and habitat use can all be studied through the identification of specific patterns or marks on an individuals body.
In the case of Humpback whales, the patterns on their flukes (tails) are like a humans’ fingerprint. Every single fluke is unique to that one individual and over many years, WDC has been able to collect an amazing amount of data.
In this blog, I am going to share with you an incredible experience of mine which I will never be able to forget.
Sometimes we were given the chance to go to the Island of Nantucket (South of Cape Cod) and go on a trip with Shearwater Excursions. In this area, we usually tend to encounter different whales from those in Cape Cod Bay, so it is always an interesting trip, never really knowing what we will see.
The day didn’t start in the best of ways. It was a very foggy morning and I wasn’t even sure if the trip was going to happen.
But it did. Good!
We spent a couple of hours searching for whales or dolphins, but nothing…The fog was so thick, I could barely see more than a couple of meters away from the boat. It seemed pretty impossible to find a whale to me.
(This photo was taken on a not so foggy day!)
Then the captain asked: “Can you smell that “stinky stinky smell”? We could! It was ‘WHALE BREATH’! He figured out the direction of the wind and followed the smell. Not long after that, he decided to switch off the engine and to just wait in silence. He was sure there was a whale somewhere around us.
A few minutes later a Humpback whale surfaced right next to our boat!
We were all so happy!
The whale was beautiful and I tried to take as many photographs as I could, as well as enjoying that special moment to the maximum.
It was an encounter like never before and the sky was starting to open up too.
We spent a little over an hour with this Humpback, who was displaying extraordinary behaviours.
The whale kept gracefully flipping over, splashing around and waving the enormous white flippers. It was quite a show!
As the whale turned onto one side, I caught his eye for a second (or maybe the whale caught mine). I won’t go into the detail of all the things that went through my mind in that second (which felt like an hour) or you will think I am crazy.
The Humpback continued diving down, hitting his fluke on the water and floating on the surface. The whale then disappeared for a while. We thought that our special moment was over but then, the next thing that happened allowed me to take the best selfie I have ever taken in my life!
This behaviour is called ’spy-hopping’ and this whale kept spy-hopping all around our boat. I believe he was checking us out as much as we were checking him out.
The encounter with this whale is something that I will always treasure.
It reminded me of how small we humans really are.
It reminded me that there is another big world out there which we know absolutely nothing about.
It also reminded me of the importance of sustainable whale watching.
We were on a medium-sized boat (the whale was probably the same size) and the captain turned the engines off for the whole time we were there. The whale didn’t feel threatened at all by us, wasn’t disturbed by our presence or by any underwater noise. Who knows, maybe the whale recognized the boat, maybe this individual was curious or simply wanted some company whilst playing around a little.
We don’t know. Scientists have been able to explain the meaning behind some whale behaviours but honestly, there is so much about them that we still don’t know. Who knows if we ever will!
For now, we can just try to protect them and learn as much as we can about this undiscovered blue world.
Experiences are worth much more than we think
About this day of mine, well done to the captain for not losing his hopes and for detecting that stinky smell.
Once I was back in the office I found a match and discovered that this was the calf of a whale who we usually spot in Cape Cod Bay. Humpback whale calves tend to stay on their mothers’ side for their first year of life (more or less) so it was quite interesting that this one was all by itself in a different area. But he looked healthy and with or without his mother, he made it back to the feeding ground for the summer like everybody else!
I have so many memories from those 3 months. From the first day (and first time in my life) that I saw a Humpback Whale, up to the very last day where I could recognize each individual out in the wild.
I cannot thank everybody at the WDC office enough for having given me this opportunity. Every day, they work so hard and push for so many initiatives! Their slogan says it all.
“A world where every whale and dolphin is safe and free“
-whale and dolphin conservation-
Visit their website, see what they are up to, how you can help them, how you can join them and how you can help protect these beautiful creatures.
