Yesterday I went to sea for the first time in 2011 aboard the University's boat. I was the "official" photo-id person, and the University biologist was going to try for some biopsies. The weather conditions were not optimal and the lookout had not seen anything when we left the harbour. Yet by the end of the day we had observed 4 blue whales and quite a few common dolphin! We should have been back to the harbour by 1800, except that yours truly spotted the 4th blue whale blow about 3/4 of a mile out to sea from our position on our way home. Since only 1 biopsy had been taken, the university is trying to determine the sex of the animals that pass by earlier in the season, we decided to try for 1 more, as there was still a bit of light. Unfortunately, this last blue was more interested in feeding like 2 of the previous whales than cooperating with us and we had to abandon our attempts after about 45 minutes. So we didn't return to the harbour until 1915 having left at 945! I was definitely cold, my feet got wet during our first encounter, although they didn't feel cold until we were headed for home and tired after a very long day. My arm is definitely feeling it today; keeping my 100-400mm lens held upright and steady to take id photos takes its toll early in the season! Muscles that haven't been used since December had to remember how to keep balance on a boat, this takes a lot more effort than you can imagine (especially with all the rolling about there was yesterday)! But in the end it was all worth it, hopefully they will keep coming through for another month or two!
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| Blue whale surfacing and just starting to blow |
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| Blue whale, notice the depth of the animal below the water! |
Now the id photos will be sent off to the North Atlantic Blue whale catalogue, to see if the whales have been seen previously around the Atlantic. Fingers crossed!
