Today was an exciting day at sea on the Caledonian Star as we cruised through an area of many reefs and small islands off the coast of central Brazil. The archipelago is a protected area and is off limits to tourist landings, but we made the most of our day in searching for whales and other marine mammals. This shallow area of warm water is a traditional site where humpback whales are often seen as they come here from the cold Antarctic peninsula waters where they feed, to the coasts of South America to calve and mate. Most of the males have headed south back toward Antarctica, but many females with 2-month-old calves remain in the area.
We spotted a few small groups of bottlenose dolphins, and several whales throughout the day, mostly females with small (15 feet long is hardly small!) calves, and one group of 4 adults later in the day which actually approached the ship! A few whales were quite active and were showing us their tails and flippers, slapping them on the water, as well as rolling completely over on their backs and showing us their expandable throat pleats or ventral grooves. Others were seen breaching (leaping out of the water), while many were simply traveling southwards. One cooperative female and calf put on quite a show, and we were able to get nice close views of the undersides of their tail flukes. Each whale's tail is uniquely patterned with scars, barnacles and a combination of black and white coloration, which serves as a fingerprint in identifying individual whales. We were able to get photographs of both mother and calf, which we can then send to a group in Maine, USA, who catalog each humpback whale. We can then find out a little more about this female (if it has been sighted before), and we can thus also help in starting a life history file for this newborn calf. Who knows, while on one of our upcoming cruises to the southern ocean, we may even see this mother and baby in February when they will finally arrive to feed in the krill-rich areas of the Antarctic peninsula. Stay tuned!!!
