Art Journal

Nature Ramblings ~ Past Times Time Travel ~ Romancing Daily Life

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Megaptera novaeangliae, At Home in a Larger World

Kingdom Animalia

Phylum Cordata (vertebrates)

Class Mammalia (mammals)

Order Cetacea

Sub-order Mysticeti (baleen whales)

Family Balaenopteridae

Genus Megaptera

Species novaeangliae

Common Name - Humpback Whale

Please CLICK ON THIS PICTURE To see all the lovely details

What am I in a humpback's world? Does she concern herself with the idea that there is life aboard the noisy machines that invades her feeding grounds? Are we something beyond a gust of bubbles and a funny oily smell? Is somebody bigger than a brontosaur, aware of me as a fellow-creature, a presence or with any kind of interest?

I encountered this gal as she was feeding out in the Monterey Bay. We also saw a minke and four distant blue whales, that looked like low-rising dark rocks coming out of the distant bay waters. These are both rare sights. But the humpbacks were all around us. They were lunge feeding, rolling on there sides, flipping their tails up and down, and so close we could hear their glorious trumpet breathing and smell the krill-laden breath that hovered over the water after they dove back down for more underwater chupas.

The krill are populating the bay in higher than normal numbers right now, so there are an awful lot more whales there than we would normally see at this time of the year. Our boat captain said we made forty sightings, of humpbacks. Here’s a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle about this unusual chance to see so many whales.


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