Whale Behaviours – Dorsal Fin Photo-id’s

By Curt Jenner on November 4, 2016 in Whale Song Reports

Three images characterise a humpback whale and any whale, the left lateral photograph, the right lateral photograph and the tail fluke photograph, not unlike the three photographs that define humans in the police line-up, being the front, left and right profiles.

Rounding to Dive. This whale, a male in a bachelor herd we observed near Christmas Island, rounds its' body showing the distinctive dorsal fin, before making a deep, sounding dive.

This is the right lateral body photograph of a sperm whale!

Even while resting the left lateral body of a cow/calf pair of humpback whales can be collected.

I can't get this animal out of my mind, what was this unusual white marking on the right flank?

This yearling humpback whale had very unique right and left lateral body markings. Unfortunately, we think this whale was blind and deaf and may well not have lasted the night… this was simply devastating.

This is the unique dorsal fin shape of a Standard minke whale, observed in the Perth Canyon.

With every recording of dwarf minke whales on our equipment, I can visualise these beautiful whales. This image taken at the Great Barrier Reef was taken by our colleague Wayne Osborn.

Underwater the CWR Team spent 6 days assisting the Minke Whale Project to study dwarf minke whales at the Great Barrier Reef. This beautiful image was taken by our colleague Wayne Osborn.

This two pygmy blue whales can be distinctly told apart by their different dorsal fins.