The Circle of Life
Silky, smooth water in the midnight hour delighted and the numerous cetacean calls had us monitoring many bearings of various species throughout all of the night sonobuoy deployments.
Around nine-thirty this morning, Resty sighted a dorsal fin, a quarter of a mile ahead of Whale Song. Racing on deck with camera in tow, I photo-identified this whale as a dwarf minke whale. A short time later, from the bearing of their calls, we located another pair of dwarf minke whales. On the move again, we trundled south after getting their dorsal fin identification photos as well.
We have humpback whales on the loose again! It was lovely to see these friends again!
For lunch Dale made his special omelettes, well-appreciated by the crew, nicely before the afternoon humpback whale sightings began! A pair of humpback whales 3 nautical miles offshore, steadily headed north. Another sighting indicated a couple of ‘bursting out of their skin with too much energy’ humpback whale yearlings inshore but paralleling the adults, also on a northward track.
We have heard and seen a cocktail of whales in the last few days migrations are in full swing! This is great. On deck out of the wind, the sun is comfortingly warm, but there is definitely a chill in the air. We are southbound this is to be expected.
One of the last chapters of the story of this juvenile humpback whales was about to be told.
We were making good progress, until a dark, moving shape 2 miles offshore, captured our attention at 530pm. A juvenile, perhaps yearling humpback whale continually twisted and turned at the surface with very floppy movements of both pectoral fins and the tail flukes. On approach, we could smell whale blubber and see a slick of whale oil, surrounding the desperate humpback whale. This lone animal, was clearly being chewed, chomped and harassed from below, and indeed we saw several sharks and many Cobia and sucker fish swimming all around it. In the fading light, I pushed and adjusted the settings on my camera, amazed that I was still able to collect images. Thirteen hundred later, we have some clues as to the demise of this poor whale. The overall body condition was very good, round and seemingly healthy. Alarmingly, there seemed to be many white, healed scars from some type of entanglement involving perhaps chain and rope. The floppiness of the tail flukes seemed the key to the mystery. Had an entanglement damaged the whale previously? Had the whale had tried to migrate regardless, following it’s internal programme? Did something happen today drastically affecting the tail flukes, causing its¹ inability to swim properly? So many questions. How long would it last thrashing and splashing, making those complete rolls at the surface?
Twisting and rolling continuously, this animal was desperate to shake the gathering sharks, Cobia and sucker fish.
It was devastating to witness this animal’s desperation. The whale was clearly frustrated at not being able to move properly and sadly, it’s fate was sealed.
How much longer could this whale last? It was agonising to watch.
After an hour of encountering this unique situation, we pulled away into the darkness, hoping that the end would be soon and nature would complete the circle. This whales’ mother would perhaps never know about this circumstance. During this mating season, most likely she would meet and mate with many more males, following the drive to procreate, unwittingly replacing her lost calf. Such is the circle of life.
Feeling contemplative,
Mich
No comments yet.