Friday, August 24, 2007

Absolutely Amazing Humpback Whale Sightings!

Hello whale watch enthusiasts, it's Danielle with Quoddy Link Marine. I'm so happy to be able to share some very special sightings with you all. Yesterday morning Matt left early on our Scout Boat to search the offshore area for humpback whales. It has been almost a week since our last humpback whale sighting but we were not to be disappointed. With a call from Matt that he had found Cork, a 5-year old female humpback we headed offshore towards Southern Wolf. When we arrived we found Cork swimming very slowly and stopping many times to simply lay there or "log" on the surface of the water. She approached the boat many time on both our morning and afternoon departures giving our guests an excellent view of her entire 35-40 foot body under the surface of the water.

On our 10:00 am trip Cork wasn't in the "mood" to show us her tail but she did on our 2:00 pm departure, to the delight of all of our passengers.
Here you can see her logging at the surface of the water. Note her long, white pectoral flippers at her side. The pectoral flippers of a humpback whale can be up to 1/3 their body length, reaching a maximum of 15 feet!!
Here you can see her tubercles on her rostrum. These bumps on the front of her head each have a coarse hair growing out of them which serves a sensory function (similar to the whiskers of a cat or seal).
These bottom 5 images show a sequence of Cork swimming along side our catamaran. Note her exhale, or blow, from her double blowhole (a characteristic of all baleen whales).




I want to thank all of our passengers who were on the Quoddy Link for these very special sightings, everyones enthusiasm and awe makes my job that much more enjoyable. Thanks for checking in and keep checking back often for more whale sightings with Quoddy Link Marine.

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