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| Pinball |
As in other recent trips, we headed down off the tip of Cape Ann, MA again today, where we saw Pinball and Satula - two whales who have been seen regularly in the area recently. But unlike any of my trips so far, Pinball and Satula were together, rather than apart! It was exciting to see these two adult humpbacks (Satula is a male, Pinball is a female) together, often swimming side-by-side.
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| Pinball (left) and Satula (right) |
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| Pinball on her side! |
Pinball was especially active today. She was constantly emitting "trumpet blows" (a blow accompanied by a noise like a trumpet) and "stutter blows" (blows that come out with a stuttering sound). So I don't know if she was excited or agitated by the presence of Satula (maybe there was some courting going on?), or the presence of us and two other whale watch boats.
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| Satula |
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| Pinball |
In addition to the unusual blows, Pinball did lots of tail slaps, tail slashes and even a couple lobtails and half rolls! Satula was a little less active, but we did still get some great looks at him. The whole time, I was wishing we could see what the whales were doing under the water, as they seemed to be interacting with each other at the water's surface.
Sadly, we also spotted a lot of litter at sea. Below is the remains of a Mylar balloon that was carelessly, or accidentally released. We worry about marine life, such as sea turtles, mistaking balloons like this for prey - one of the preferred prey of leatherback turtles is jellyfish.
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| The remains of a mylar balloon |
The seas were so calm today and we had the added bonus of getting cooled off with a nice strong shower on the way home! We came back to a very foggy harbor after another great day on the water. Thanks to everyone who joined us, and congratulations to Carol on winning the Owl adoption!
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| Foggy harbor! |
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