Arquipelago dos Abrolhos, Brazil
Today was our first of a two-day sail to Rio de Janeiro. We sailed this morning in the area of the Arquipelago dos Abrolhos, a group of small islands and reefs, in search of any life that might be attracted to the area. There was a good deal of seaweed floating at the surface which had obviously been detached for the nearby rocks. In mid-morning we encountered a pod of humpback whales feeding at shallow depths near the archipelago. The pod included a calf which spent most of its time at the surface while its mother was feeding below. The whales fluked out a number of times to give us good looks at the distinctive markings on the ventral side of the flukes, which researchers use to identify individual animals. Over 980 individuals have been identified in the archipelago. These whales are southern hemisphere animals and are wintering here. They will soon be traveling south to Antarctica, shortly after Endeavour makes her way there later this austral spring. This reminds us that those of us who have been on the ship since Ponta Delgada have managed to miss winter entirely so far this year since we left the northern hemisphere in early fall and have arrived in the southern hemisphere in early spring, another unexpected benefit of sailing on board this ship that follows the sun like an Arctic terns we have seen on this passage, yearly making the great migration from the Arctic to the Antarctic.
Today was our first of a two-day sail to Rio de Janeiro. We sailed this morning in the area of the Arquipelago dos Abrolhos, a group of small islands and reefs, in search of any life that might be attracted to the area. There was a good deal of seaweed floating at the surface which had obviously been detached for the nearby rocks. In mid-morning we encountered a pod of humpback whales feeding at shallow depths near the archipelago. The pod included a calf which spent most of its time at the surface while its mother was feeding below. The whales fluked out a number of times to give us good looks at the distinctive markings on the ventral side of the flukes, which researchers use to identify individual animals. Over 980 individuals have been identified in the archipelago. These whales are southern hemisphere animals and are wintering here. They will soon be traveling south to Antarctica, shortly after Endeavour makes her way there later this austral spring. This reminds us that those of us who have been on the ship since Ponta Delgada have managed to miss winter entirely so far this year since we left the northern hemisphere in early fall and have arrived in the southern hemisphere in early spring, another unexpected benefit of sailing on board this ship that follows the sun like an Arctic terns we have seen on this passage, yearly making the great migration from the Arctic to the Antarctic.
