Branching out from our usual bird chat today, this blog is
to celebrate our WHALE (and dolphin) sightings through the year. Any fins seen
breaching the surface are always the cause of great excitement on Base, and
there have been quite a few this year, especially in the last few months.
During the summer months we saw Dusky Dolphins quite regularly, including a
super-pod so big it took over half an hour for them all to pass the Base. It
was impossible to estimate how many dolphins were swimming by, but they must
have numbered many thousands. This was (at that point) my best cetacean
sighting ever, and certainly one of the most memorable moments on Gough.
Even this though has been topped over and over this winter.
Coming from Britain, we are used to any cetacean spots being relatively easy to
identify, since we only have a few common species at home. Here on Gough though
anything could be passing by, which is amazingly exciting but makes it hard to
know where to begin when trying to identify any visitors. We’ve given it our
best shot though (in between jumping around in excitement) and have spotted
Southern Right, Pilot, Humpback and Antarctic Minke Whales, as well as several
Fin Whales on the boat out here. I’ve always wanted to see a Humpback Whale, so
this was particularly special, and the Southern Right Whale was spectacular. It
was spotted just a couple of hundred metres off-shore and put on an incredible
show, breaching again and again and rolling over to slap its flippers down on
the water surface, sending massive sheets of water into the air. Eventually,
with one last tail flip it finally disappeared off south, still cavorting about
and throwing itself out of the water. Show off.
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| A Southern Right Whale preparing to dive (David Kinchin-Smith) |
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| One of the smaller pods of Dusky Dolphins to pass by (Tom Mc Sherry) |
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| A very small part of a very large super-pod of Dusky Dolphins (David Kinchin-Smith) |
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| A very special day- A Humpback Whale visits the island! (David Kinchin-Smith) |
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| Ending with the best... A Southern Right Whale putting on a show (David Kinchin-Smith) |
And just imagine what’s passing by unseen on the other side of the island….
Em
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