A Whale Sighting

This afternoon, we were lucky enough to see a minke whale who seemed to enjoy circling around our ship while we were retrieving the ALVIN. Seems to have been attracted to the sonar the Atlantis was using to determine ALVIN's location. The 4 small chunks removed from the underside of the whale are probably the result of attacks by cookie-cutter sharks, who frequently bite whales for their blubber.

The minke whale is one of the smallest of the baleen whales, with this one being slightly over 20 feet. They have a maximum size of 32 feet for males and 35 feet for females. There are a couple of subspecies of the "common" minke whale. Their taxonomy (something that we will be studying after spring break in marine science) remains unclear.

Minke whales feed on a variety of small schooling fish as well as krill. They are often attracted to ships like ours because small fish like to congregate underneath our structure. They are usually seen alone, like ours today, or in small groups.

I would love to claim credit for taking these pictures, but they are from our professional photographer, who happened to be in the water photographing the ALVIN when the whale approached. Minke whales are unfortunately still actively hunted by Norway and Japan for food, but it seems hard to imagine killing such a beautiful animal.

My favorite picture is this one, in which you can see its fluke and total body size. I am certain to print one of these off to hang in my classroom!

The whale hung around for about 30 minutes or so and then swam off into the distance. For a moment, I wondered what it would be like to be a whale. It is times like these that will become treasured memories of this wonderful experience.

Photos courtesy of Lu Lamar