At Sea near Shag Rocks on our way to South Georgia
‘Whales ahead of the ship!’ was the announcement made by Tom Ritchie, our Expedition Leader and out on deck we came in our red parkas, one by one into glorious, warm sunshine. At first there were two misty whale spouts rising from the surface, then one more blow, and another and another and still another small one. Five big ones and calf with its mother! How cool, but what kind are they? They could be fin whales, but these are a little different. These whales are big; a little bigger than humpbacks, but not 70 feet long like fin whales can get. Plus we see the blow and then almost immediately after that, we see the tall, erect dorsal fin. Tom tells us that this means they are sei whales, one of the less commonly seen baleen whales, and a species that has not been studied as much as some of the others.
Sei whales are the third largest species of the pelagic (open ocean) baleen filter feeding whales, and sure enough we were picking up big, dense swarms of krill with the ship’s echo sounder. All totaled today, we saw 6 sei whales, 9 fin whales, 2 humpbacks and 1 elusive blue whale. In travelling in these waters for 14 years now, I have never seen so many different whales in one area! There must be a lot of food around here. Oh, and I almost forgot; there are about a million sea birds all over the place out here. I can’t possibly drag myself inside today. It is just too awesome out on deck with all the albatross and now the whales. I hear another announcement. More whales! I love it!
‘Whales ahead of the ship!’ was the announcement made by Tom Ritchie, our Expedition Leader and out on deck we came in our red parkas, one by one into glorious, warm sunshine. At first there were two misty whale spouts rising from the surface, then one more blow, and another and another and still another small one. Five big ones and calf with its mother! How cool, but what kind are they? They could be fin whales, but these are a little different. These whales are big; a little bigger than humpbacks, but not 70 feet long like fin whales can get. Plus we see the blow and then almost immediately after that, we see the tall, erect dorsal fin. Tom tells us that this means they are sei whales, one of the less commonly seen baleen whales, and a species that has not been studied as much as some of the others.
Sei whales are the third largest species of the pelagic (open ocean) baleen filter feeding whales, and sure enough we were picking up big, dense swarms of krill with the ship’s echo sounder. All totaled today, we saw 6 sei whales, 9 fin whales, 2 humpbacks and 1 elusive blue whale. In travelling in these waters for 14 years now, I have never seen so many different whales in one area! There must be a lot of food around here. Oh, and I almost forgot; there are about a million sea birds all over the place out here. I can’t possibly drag myself inside today. It is just too awesome out on deck with all the albatross and now the whales. I hear another announcement. More whales! I love it!
