NOTE TO READERS: We have chosen to use the word “herm” as a pronoun for any non-human animal whose gender is unknown to us.
A cloudy morning in a bay on Cortes. Two aluminum work boats buzz in at 9am. The skippers jump ship on a tiny islet to pick clams on the sandy beach at low tide.
We are charging batteries and studying the GH5 camcorder manual yet again so we get a late start. No backs or blows are visible in the immediate area as we motor out of the bay. But we hear reports of some lively humpbacks between Marina Island and Francisco Point so we head south over calm seas.
An hour later Terry calls from the bow “Blows! about 1/2 km ahead”. Three , maybe four whales are resting peacefully on the water so we slow down and ease closer. A seine boat is approaching the whales from the SW. He’s not slowing down. Has he seen the whales? “Try and get him on channel 16” Terry shouts “No, it’s OK. He’s on a parallel course. He won’t run over them them.” The seine boat doesn’t hit them but his heavy wake breaks over the sleeping whales. One large whale arches herm’s back and slams the water with herm’s tail. Pissed off? Maybe, but it’s over immediately. Back to sleep now.
Whales and dolphins sleep with one hemisphere of their brains at a time. The other hemisphere stays awake. They have to stay awake because, unlike humans, they are conscious breathers. In fact researchers learned the hard way that if you tranquilize a whale or dolphin they will drown. Cetaceans have to be awake to breathe. Wakefulness of half their brain may also allow them to respond instantly to changes in the ocean environment such as the arrival of predators, or breaking waves. It is mind bending to imagine the consciousness of a being who lives simultaneously in the dreamtime and wakefulness. Wouldn’t we love to know!
The whales float and we float with them. We listen to the music of their breathing and Jude plays some didjeridoo. “I think there’s a baby with them” Terry whispers. “Listen… a little “Poof” compared to Mom’s “PITCHOOOO” And the dorsal fin is close to the blowholes on the little one…. Yup. Mom and calf – you got your wish Jude”
We send our sighting to the WOWS group line and soon see other boats coming to join us. The downside of this is that lots of boats, respectful though they are of the whales’ space, create lots of wake. Bobbing and rocking from boat wake makes it difficult to shoot video that doesn’t cause vertigo in the viewer. It’s especially debilitating when the whales are far from the ship so telephoto lenses must be employed.
“I think they’re waking up now” Terry observes. Unexpectedly one of the whales breaches. And they’re off! – fins slapping the surface water and lots of splashing activity. Jude drops the hydrophone and listens to hear if they are talking to each other. But all the boats are moving with the whales so wake and engine noise drown out every other sound. A light breeze springs up. It keeps shifting direction, forcing Jude to stay on the helm so we don’t run into any whales or other boats. It’s necessary to abandon the audio recording.
A few herring leap near our bow. The whales must have woken up to a school of passing herring and are taking advantage of the buffet lunch. When it seems they’ve gone under to rest for a while Jude decides to go for a brief swim while Terry grabs some lunch. On her way to get a towel Jude glances ahead “A whale – breaching” Jude cries. By now the whales are 1/2 km away. All thoughts of swimming and lunch are quickly abandoned as Terry scrambles for a camera and Jude starts the engine. It does feel a bit like a chase when the whales are active. All the boats circle around and move with them. But the whales don’t seem to mind. They continue fin slapping, tail lobbing and breaching – probably fishing on a herring school. In spite of the constant wake and movement of other boats in the water Terry manages to film some of the action. And they just keep jumping!
After an hour of hyper-activity the whales enjoy another rest so we don’t follow them. Time for lunch and a swim. But 20 minutes later they are breaching again! What an active bunch! Terry takes some still photos of the whales’ flukes for ID purposes. Later we learn who they are.