To know a Humpback Whale

I went out with guide Sabrina for the 10 o’clock. I am still picking up a lot of her knowledge, she is an outstanding guide, her enthusiastic approach is very inspiring and I will be stealing a lot of her guiding technique in the future. It was quite the pleasent trip, a Humpback rolled over for us and swam around the boat and we also bumped into some Dolphins. With some time to spare we took the detour to the Puffin Island on the way back.

The 13:30 was also nice, Humpback Whales everywhere and a Minke as well. We also sailed all the way west to the Mountains but no luck there. I was a little bit surprised about that, but is was a nice sailing nevertheless, the sun was shining on the mountains and everything was somehow bright and beautiful.

When one has been doing this job for so long (it is my sixth season now) It is truly amazing how you start to know the indiviual Humpback Whales apart. The most obvious way to do that is by examining the white pattern under their Tail Flukes, because no two Humpbacks have the same pattern. But there is quite more to it than this. And why am I writing this now? I was just looking at this picture that Baldur, my brother, posted like an hour ago on the North Sailing Facebook (he is out on the bay now, guiding the 15:15 trip) …

… and just by looking at this picture I can tell that this is the same Humpback Whale that rolled over in the 10 o’clock. The size and shape of the Dorsal Fin, the colour pattern of the Side Flipper and the Barnacles on the Tail Fluke corner, those are all clues to look for. One beautiful animal.

– Bibbi, Guide