Monday, July 31, 2006

Humpbacks!! Meet Hobo and Parachute

Hello, it's Danielle again, senior naturalist and photographer with Quoddy Link Marine. What a day! Again, no fog, light winds and unlimited visibility. On our morning trip we had the pleasure of watching a very active humpback. "He" was breaching, partial and full as well as slapping his fluke on the surface of the water. This behaviour was a special sighting as it isn't seen on every trip. Here you can see the rostrum, or top of his head. The small bumps around the edge are tubercles and there is a small, coarse hair growing out of each believed to have a sensory purpose. The large bump in the middle is his blowhole.


Here is the underside of the fluke of the breaching humpback. The identity has been confirmed as Hobo.











This photograph was taken today while Hobo was slapping his fluke on the water. We also saw Hobo during the 2005 season.












On our evening trip we saw another humpback whale. This is Parachute, a whale we have seen for the past 3 seasons. We couldn't have asked for a better day, it reminds me why I love my job. Thanks to Jooke Robbins at the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies in Massachusetts for help in identifying the humpbacks.

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