Gorda Banks, Baja California Sur, Mexico
WHOA! Now that's a big fish! No wait, that's a whale. One whale? Two whales? Wait a minute! What is going on here? At first glance, did your mind join these two whale parts – flukes on the left and head on the right – into one animal? In other words, did you think that this was one long, skinny, humpback whale playfully arching its back towards the depths? This scene, captured by the eye of the camera, is actually a moment in the lives of three humpback whales that we encountered on our way to Cabo San Lucas. Only two of the whales are visible in the picture. The flukes of one adult are on the left, and on the right are the head and pectoral flipper of a very young humpback as it performs a half breach. The second adult is completely underwater. We learned this morning that a mother humpback whale and her young of the year (called a cow-calf pair) sometimes have adult males as escorts in the off-hand chance that the female will become receptive to mating. The other adult we saw with the cow/calf pair may have been one of these males. We will never know for sure. We do know that we watched three humpback whales – two full-grown and one much smaller – swimming and breathing and breaching together in the choppy, blue waters off the tip of the Baja Peninsula. It was amazing to enter into their lives for but a moment and learn a bit about them – even more amazing than contemplating the existence of a very long and skinny humpback whale frolicking by itself in the sea.
WHOA! Now that's a big fish! No wait, that's a whale. One whale? Two whales? Wait a minute! What is going on here? At first glance, did your mind join these two whale parts – flukes on the left and head on the right – into one animal? In other words, did you think that this was one long, skinny, humpback whale playfully arching its back towards the depths? This scene, captured by the eye of the camera, is actually a moment in the lives of three humpback whales that we encountered on our way to Cabo San Lucas. Only two of the whales are visible in the picture. The flukes of one adult are on the left, and on the right are the head and pectoral flipper of a very young humpback as it performs a half breach. The second adult is completely underwater. We learned this morning that a mother humpback whale and her young of the year (called a cow-calf pair) sometimes have adult males as escorts in the off-hand chance that the female will become receptive to mating. The other adult we saw with the cow/calf pair may have been one of these males. We will never know for sure. We do know that we watched three humpback whales – two full-grown and one much smaller – swimming and breathing and breaching together in the choppy, blue waters off the tip of the Baja Peninsula. It was amazing to enter into their lives for but a moment and learn a bit about them – even more amazing than contemplating the existence of a very long and skinny humpback whale frolicking by itself in the sea.
