Humpbacks Make an Appearance

After all the wind and fog last week, Sunday through Tuesday provided three good days for aerial surveys and we took advantage of them. Although we saw no right whales, two humpback whales, on separate days, made the flights exciting.

On Monday, we spotted the first one about two miles east of Highbridge Road in North Peninsula State Park. It bobbed up and down slightly in the water and

blew a few times, but was otherwise motionless as though resting. The telltale white pectoral fins and small dorsal fin about 2/3’s from the head are clearly visible in the photo to the right.

Tuesday’s humpback whale was a completely different story. It surfaced as we passed over top of it, about a half mile from shore in S. Flagler Beach, very actively swimming north, accompanied by a phalanx of dolphins. We made a few circles and each time we were in range for

photos, it submerged. Rising gusty winds aloft forced us to abandon further attempts for photos and we had to be content with the one to the right. If you look closely at Monday’s whale, you will see a mottled white patch on the leading edge of the left fluke, which is not present in the photo of Tuesday’s whale, leading us to believe that these were two different whales.

In addition to the whales, these surveys revealed the arrival of large numbers of loggerhead and leatherback sea turtles just offshore. On Tuesday, when we sighted the greatest numbers, we documented just over 100 loggerheads and 60 leatherbacks.