Whales 20 October, 2009

After a week of not feeling well, it was good to get out on the water again. We saw, as we so often do now, a mother and her calf just off the beach, too close to stop but not far away we could see lots of splashing going on, so out we headed.

A pod of 4 whales put on a lovely show of pec slapping.

There was moments when 2 of the whales were on their backs at the same time, lifting their pecs and slapping them hard down on the surface. An amazing sight and sound.

 The pod of 4 whales broke into 2 pods of 2, eventually coming back together again. It appeared that there was some males in the pod, which was evident in their competitive display.

Some of you who read this will not be aware that pods of whales do not stay together.  Mothers and their calves are the exception to this. Pods of whales are often together for very short periods. It is possible this pod of 4 had just joined up when we came across them.

By the time we left the pod of 4, 2 were still together and the other 2 had broken away from the pod and from each other, making 3 pods. There was a breach in the distance before we left, possibly another whale communicating to these whales.