365 Project, Day 48
Here is my day fourty-eight submission to my 365Project:
I was very busy this morning with five sightings of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in the span of two hours! I was tracking three groups at one point which is actually quite difficult! This whale surprised me as, initially, it looked like it would cross ahead of the ship but, on the next surfacing, it popped up right off our port side and then just behind the vessel.
I didn't have time to get a photo when it was on the port side but I managed to grab this shot of it crossing behind us. At first I was disappointed because the photo was a bit distorted due to the haze from the ship's stacks but in the end I found the effect made for an interesting photo in combination with how distinct the whale's blow is here.
Fun fact of the day:
All humpback whales are black or dark gray on the dorsal side but ventral (belly) colouration varies greatly from all white to all black, with significant differences among populations. For example, in some Southern Hemisphere populations whales have extensive white which can extend far up onto the flanks.
If you compare the photos of the humpback whales breaching in my blog posts on July 14th and August 5th you will see the differences in the body colourations of these Southern Hemisphere whales.
And here is the pair of whales swimming away from us after we finished a turn and they ended up off our port bow:
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