Aug 05, 2014
The rusty red cliffs of Hall Point glowed under the warm rising sun. As the team stirred with plates of warm raisin toast, bowls of museli and mugs of steaming coffee the gear was prepared for another day of filming.
Moving slowly northwards along the rugged coastline towards Wilson Point, we saw humpback whale pods at almost every point on the compass. Pods of two and three whales dotted the horizon were called down from the top deck by Doug on the VHF. Some whales were breaching, others fluke-slapping but overall, pods were racing across Camden Sound, zig-zagging to and fro, being terribly busy. Perhaps the windy weather was increasing their activity. Maybe they were just excited to be there. In the green, cloudy water the whales were easily seen as large, dark brown shapes swimming quickly, exhaling large white puffy blows. At one point, at least eight whales from several previously separate pods came together or affiliated. These congregations involved much white-water at the surface and swirling below the surface, whereby things were sorted out and pods of two and three moved away across the sound.
Chocolate brown and white humpback whale bodies in the green, silty water make the whale bodies easy to find.
With the Easterly wind rising as the morning passed, a South-Westerly in the afternoon had us retreating to the northern side of North and South Wailgrin Islands towards calm water. Just at sunset, we deployed two sonobuoys which live recorded six male humpback whales calling intermittently or singing consistently. While Daffy monitored the Omni and Barra sonobuoys identifying the direction and types of sound the whales were making, the lure of a rowdy pod of four males roaring around just on the edge of the wind-line in the golden light, was irresistible. Whale Song tracked them and thoroughly enjoyed their antics. These males exhaled huge blows which billowed in the wind, bodies charged at the surface through the waves and their noisy “rainblows” were the mark of random charging and dominance displays, without a female in sight. Perhaps, the pecking order was being established before they even encountered an available female. We followed them for almost an hour and then choose a suitable anchorage near Wilson Point.
Boisterous blows from rowdy males at sunset!
Restys’ delicious special fried rice for lunch and super-tasty pasta for dinner were very welcome by the very hungry and very busy crew monitoring the equipment and tracking whales.
What another great day! It is wonderful to see Wilson Point as Wilson Point and not as it was suggested a few years ago, the site for a gas plant. It appeared that the whales were also excited and fractious at having arrived on the breeding and calving ground. The sub-adults are “all dressed up with nowhere to go”, but the adults will soon get down to serious business.
Let the Camden Sound games begin! Delighted to be in Camden Sound,
Mich
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