It’s difficult to process the contrast of watching a humpback whale sluggishly swimming along one minute to witnessing it leap from the water like a gigantic trout the next. When our guests were confronted with this mind-bender north of San Juan Island, expressions oscillated from surprise, to elation, to puzzlement. Did you see that too? How does a 50-foot whale clear the surface? Why did it do that? So many questions, and so few answers.
Scientists think breaching behavior may have several functions depending on the context. One hypothesis is that the animal is relieving itself of irritations and parasites. Another explanation is that the animal is breaching to communicating with others. Perhaps it’s a method of capturing more prey. Or maybe the beast is just having a look around and celebrating life.
A propensity for breaching is but one of the mysteries of a humpback’s psyche. At their breeding sites in Hawaii, males will sing long, eerie ballads that can carry through the water for 15 miles or more! They may sing a 20-minute tune for hours on end. If you haven’t heard these awe-inspiring vocalizations, I strongly suggest you spend a few minutes on YouTube catching up on humpback hymns.
If you’ve been following our whale report blog over the past couple weeks, you probably know that our tours continue to re-sight a female humpback known as Big Mama, just across the border near Saturna Island, British Columbia. Today she was joined by two other mamas, one bigger than big mama herself! One lucky guest caught a perfect picture of the underside of the largest cow’s fluke. When I learned of the photo, we eagerly consulted our photo identification guide and learned that we were looking at another resident humpback known as…Heather. While “Heather” wouldn’t be my first choice for a whale’s name, I must admit that Heather’s scientific name, BCY0160, is neither charming, nor memorable.
Andrew Munson
Naturalist, M/V Sea Lion
San Juan Safaris