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What the whales are up to
Download your free Whale watching Guide here.
Especially when whale watching from
shore, one observes the Southern Right Whales indulging themselves in a number of
different "movements", and it helps to know what they're "up to"
out there:
- Breaching: a most spectacular "ooh aah" sight. The whales leap out the water in an arching back flip and fall back on their sides or back with a resounding crash. It is thought this is a way of communication, exercise or possibly to scratch the parasites off. They usually breach a number of times in succession.
Lobtailing: The whales slap their tails or
flukes on the surface of the water - when they're not too far
offshore you can hear the sound. Sometimes they carry on for ages - a form of
communication, perhaps?
- Blowing: When the whales expell air
from their lungs, it produces an
echoing
sound which can be heard from quite a distance. If you're watching,
you can see the v-shaped spouts of water vapour.
- Spyhopping: The whales raise their
heads and part of
their bodies vertically from the
water, which gives them a view of what's happening above the
surface. Watching the watchers ....?
- Grunting: a loud "bellow" which can be heard from very far away - even from the top of the mountain. If your place of residence is not too far from the sea, or on high ground, the sound can even wake you at night!
- Sailing: When the whales raise
their tails from the water for long
periods,
as though it will catch the wind and help them sail. That's
all you see - just the tails. It has been observed that they turn their tails to
make the most advantage of the wind.
You'll also spot the whales lying adjacent to the kelp beds and even letting pieces of floating kelp drift over their heads and backs. It's thought that this helps to release dead skin and whale lice.
Stephen Wong has an excellent gallery of Southern Right Whale photos
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