Category: Whales

Southeast Alaska: Day 5, Orcas in the Chatham Strait

On By flyingsquidwithgogglesIn Natural Wonders, Whales, Wildlife

 

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An adult male Orca (Orcinus orca) in the Chatham Strait

During the afternoon of Day 5 we left Baranof Island and headed north through the Chatham Strait to Chicagof Island. On the way we sighted a trio of Orcas (Killer Whales) chugging north, alongside us within a few hundred yards of Chichagof Island’s eastern shoreline. They weren’t in any particular hurry, as they meandered mostly north, the M/V Sea Lion slowing to pace them. There was some good activity to watch as the adult female with the group repeatedly lobtailing/tail slapping the surface – a behavior seen a lot in the whales with social lives and structured cultures like the Orca.

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A female Orca lobtailing at the surface

It’s impossible to know exactly what is intended by the repeated lobtailing behavior – the meaning of signals like this can probably vary a great deal by context (were the other whales with this large female offspring? Or siblings? Was the large adult male we would encounter a mate? Or a stranger?) But the activity made for great watching. On the other side of the ship, a large male Orca (the one in the upper photo in this post) was seen. This whale seemed pretty comfortable around our ship, crossing under it a couple times so we got views of its right and left sides as we all puttered north, and even graced us with a breach. I did not, alas, manage to get a photo of the breach. That was a little bit of a downer, but only because I did not know what the evening of Day 5 would hold.

Southeast Alaska: Day 3, Frederick Sound NIGHT WHALES!

On By flyingsquidwithgogglesIn Whales, Wildlife

Wowee! Night whales! Whales, but at night! Like, in darkness.

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Two humpback whales at the surface at night (or sunset) in Frederick Sound, AK. The pectoral fin of the whale on the right is arching over to almost touch the dorsal fin of the whale on the left.

Most whale watching happens during the day, when you can see them. I was pretty happy that after dinner, near sunset (the above photo was taken at 9:30 PM,) we found more whales. Two humpbacks, doing some leisurely feeding at the surface, ignored the ship as we idled to watch them.

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I can’t help but be excited even at just the mundane breathing and surfacing of the whales at sunset. I never get to see them with these colors.

The water was calm enough that as the whales came to the surface to breathe, we could hear each breath clearly. Alaska has these great passages between islands that are deep and wide enough to hold significant amounts of food for whales, and are protected from the open ocean enough that they provide an excellently flat surface for viewing.

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A fluke of the humpback, waving goodbye to us.

Southeast Alaska: Day 2, Stevens Passage and Dawes Glacier

On By flyingsquidwithgogglesIn Whales, Wildlife

Once aboard the Sea Lion and away from Juneau, we could cover a lot of territory on the ship. We moved south along the Stevens Passage, headed for the Tracy and Endicott Arms (fjords in the Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness.)  The crew likely got some sort of tip about whales, because we continued south until we found a group of humpback whales near Gambier Bay.

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Early whale sighting aboard the Sea Lion, 7:30 AM, August 1, 2016

These whales put on a great show, repeatedly diving and swimming by the ship, unconcerned (the officers had stopped the ship; we were essentially just drifting along, which is a pretty common safety measure among whale watching boats, although this was the largest ship I’ve been on to do this.)

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A humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangeliae) strongly arches its back as it goes for a deeper dive in the Stevens Passage, AK

The group of whales (pod) was relatively large, at least seven whales and possibly as many as ten. Humpbacks owe their name to one of two things, depending on who you believe. Either the name comes from the hump just ahead and under the dorsal fin, which can be seen in the photo above; or the name comes from their tendency to deeply arch their backs as they dive, giving them the appearance of a hunch, which can also be seen in the photo above. Wikipedia’s article on humpbacks mentions the arching of the back as the origin of the name, but does not provide a source.

The whales showed off a couple of great behaviors – tail slapping, also called lobtailing, which is bringing the fluke of the whale high out of the water and slapping it down on the surface to create a large splash and sound. It is not understood why the whales do this, but chances are that it’s a signal to other whales, the loud sounds created would carry well in the ocean and be a great way to signal whales that are far away from the slapper.

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A humpback tail slapping. If you look closely, you can see from the shape of the right hand side of this photo that it’s the belly (ventral surface) of the whale on that side. Underwater, this whale is belly-up to slap its flukes on the surface.

Last but not least, the humpbacks did breach at least twice, but I didn’t get a good photo. Caught by surprise (breaches can be over in just two seconds or so) I didn’t have the camera focused on the right place, and I wasn’t even trying to get a shot of the right whale.

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A little too off-center to be a good photo of a breach, and not enough resolution to crop just to the whale on the left. I had been intending to get another photo of the tail-slapping whale, whose splash can be seen in the upper right.

All the photos above were captured before 8:30 in the morning, so there was even more to see that day, which may have to wait for another post.

Marine Mammals of San Francisco, Part III

On By flyingsquidwithgogglesIn Whales, Wildlife

The whales have been systematically moving in closer to shore (at least some of them, there are still plenty of whales offshore.) So close, that sighting humpbacks in San Francisco Bay is becoming a regular thing this summer, and people have seen feeding and breaching in the Bay, very uncommon behaviors for the Bay itself.

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There were at least two, probably three or four, humpbacks close to the South Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge yesterday – this photo was taken around 6:30 PM on July 11th.

2016.7.11HUWHTail.GGBridgeEDTHere’s a fluke shot of one of the whales. Sadly, I didn’t have time to get to a better viewing position than Hawk Hill up on the northern side of the Golden Gate Strait, but I keep being reminded of the natural wonders that visit us in the Bay.

Here’s some video shot by kayakers on the Bay that gives a much closer impression and some great shots of feeding, if you can stand the swell’s effect on the camera.

Marine Mammals of San Francisco, Part II

On By flyingsquidwithgogglesIn Whales, Wildlife

Saturday, June 4th, was a good day out on the water despite some persistent fog that seeped the color out of the photos below (I’ve increased the contrast and color on most of these, because posting photos in grey and black doesn’t really appeal to me.)

After we found a couple grey whales northbound near Point Bonita, we visited the Farallon Islands, and on our return we were treated to breaching humpbacks right where the shipping lanes diverge, about 12 miles or so offshore from San Francisco:

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Unfortunately, they only breached a couple times while in view, and the fog took a lot of the drama out of these photos. Still, it’s always a treat when whales decide to show a little more of their bodies off than we can usually see.

Breaching wasn’t enough, though. Soon one of the whales transitioned into pectoral slapping – taking its 15-foot long pectoral fin up out of the water to slap down on the surface:

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Here the whale is on its side, back facing the camera, and it slapped its fin down repeatedly, making a great splash each time. The most likely reason for this behavior is the big splash and associated noise – sounds that carry long-distance are the most efficient ways for whales to signal each other. We can’t know what information the signals convey, because even the same signal can have different meanings due to context. Since the whales are most likely feeding in this area, it may have to do with finding food. Another possibility is that it may have to do with our boat driving up, since the change in signaling behavior happened just as we arrived.

 

Our day wasn’t over yet, though! In addition to humpback whale behavior, we also got treated to dolphins, which were very hard to photograph.

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These are part of a pod of common dolphins that numbered between 100-150 animals, so it was impossible to get the whole pod in one frame. With only a few on the surface at a time, it was a little difficult to guess where to look, but they were a great treat to see.