luck #4

Sometimes opportunity presents itself when I least expect it. Such as the opportunity for whale watching. These marine mammals pass the Santa Barbara Channel on their annual migration and several businesses offer cruises to watch them. Even better, our local AEP representative had organized a tour, allowing me to save a couple of bucks on the ticket (even though I’m not a member).

At this time there were only humbacks to watch. Fine with me, since they are said to be the most playful of whales. And indeed, they were. One of them breached out of the water in the fashion that made humpback whales famous. The narrator on the boat told the crowd that scientists still haven’t figured out why they do it. One hypothesis is that it’s an attempt to shove off parasites from their sensitive skin. Another explanation put forth by the narrator himself is that “because they can and it looks like fun.” Considering that cetaceans are quite intelligent and a number of intelligent animals show playing behaviour, this is not as unlikely as it sounds. It might also be a way of communication, since a 30 ton body hitting the water makes quite a sound. Other whales flapped their pectoral fins on the water surface, possibly for similar reasons.

I tried to take some nice photos for you but it’s rather difficult to take a good picture of a diving whale for someone as unexperienced in nature photography as me. However, luck was with me once again and I managed to capture a half-minute video of a couple of whales coming very close to the boat. WordPress won’t let me upload the file so you’ll have to wait until I find a solution to this problem.