Although we had cloudy skies and a bit of rain it was another great day out on the water! After spending time with the puffins this morning the boat ventured off to the feeding grounds. Naturalists Zack and Linda along with research intern, Laura, were anxious of what awaited offshore. And well, it seemed that the breakfast bell was ringing! Passengers were treated to 3 lunge feeding finback whales, with 4 other finbacks surfacing nearby. Lunge feeding is an exciting behavior to witness and we don't get to see whales doing this very often. They are usually feeding deeper down in the water column. But the finbacks lunged over 30 times! There were patches of krill seen at the surface. This was probably what they were eating.
When these large baleen whales feed they open their enormous mouths, taking in prey and seawater. Being mammals, they can't drink the saltwater. The fringed, keratin plates called baleen strain the water out and keep the food in. Finback whales can have up to 900 individual baleen plates hanging down from their upper jaw. Also, stretching from the lower jaw to their belly button are approximately 80 throat pleats or grooves that expand like an accordion causing the lower jaw to balloon out and act like a pouch to gather up their prey. This allows them to catch up to 100-150 pounds of prey in one big gulp!
The afternoon trip was just as successful as the 1:00 whale watch saw 5 finbacks as well as a mother and calf pair of humpback whales. The mother was a humpback named Siphon!
The whale watch crew were happy to see that she decided to stick around and continue to feed and show off her calf. Her calf is at least 5 to 6 months old at this point. It was born in the warmer waters of the Caribbean, somewhere off the coast of the Dominican Republic or West Indies. Siphon and other calving females can lose up to 15,000 pounds during the winter months. She loses a great deal of her weight due to providing fatty rich milk to her calf and from surviving off her fat reserves while traveling to and from the breeding and calving grounds.
A great way to wrap up another day offshore. We hope to continue having many more nice days to come! Many thanks to research intern, Laura, for taking such great pictures!
