Greenland – whales

[part of a series of posts beginning here]

Shortly after dinner on our first night aboard, as we cruised the Iceland coast toward its western peninsulas, the ship’s naturalists – always on the lookout – announced we had come upon a group of whales.  It turned out to be a pod of minke whales and a bubble-feeding humpback whale.   The ship paused as passengers enjoyed watching the humpback, right next to the ship, repeatedly blew a circle of bubbles, and then surfaced in the middle to swallow a massive gulp of fish that it had ‘trapped’ in the confused circle created by the bubbles.  I stood on Deck 6 forward, capturing snaps of the smaller minke whales in between sightings of the humpback.  Check out the gallery of my images, and watch a video, including some from the moment below captured by National Geographic photographer Nick Cobbins. Read on for more…

Humpback whales can be identified by unique visual characteristics of their fluke; one of the naturalists uploaded a photo to HappyWhale.com, and within a few days it was confirmed to be HW-MN0104308, thereby adding to its history through this citizen-science initiative.  In a remarkable act of generosity, at the end of the trip the Expedition Leader announced that he had made a donation to HappyWhale and, in return, was able to name this whale Tula, in honor of the Endurance’s long-serving head of hospitality, Petula, who was retiring that evening.  Aww.  I plan to ‘follow’ Tula to learn where she shows up next!

At sunset the next night we encountered a solitary fin whale, and again paused to watch as it surfaced periodically in calm, sunset-golden seas.  [video]

The following night we encountered a sperm whale, which seemed to be resting, rising occasionally to breathe.  The naturalist guessed that it was building up oxygen in its bloodstream, preparing for a dive.  According to Wikipedia, sperm whales are known to dive very deep (as much as 2,250 meters, i.e., 7,380 ft), staying below for as much as an hour or two.   Indeed, eventually we saw this whale dive, showing its fluke.  Check out my video of the dive!

More photos and short videos in the abovementioned gallery. The videos are often more interesting than the still photos!