Feeding party in midsummer
The 21st of July is supposed to be the astronomical beginning of summer. But it didn’t really feel like summer this morning. The sky was overcast and it was quite rainy. However, our passengers wee wrapped in our warm overalls and raincoats and of course the wildlife doesn’t care about the weather, so everybody was in a good mood when we left the harbor.
It didn’t take us too long to encounter our first humpback whale. But since this individual spent a long time under the sea surface we decided to head further north. And far away on the horizon we suddenly spotted some splashes: There was definitely a breaching humpback whale in front of us! It continued jumping while we were approaching it, but as soon as we reached the animal it stopped and went down for a long dive. We spent some time with the whale that had now calmed down, when we suddenly spotted something else not too far away from us: A very long, grayish-blue back surfacing. A blue whale! We headed there immediately and got some very close looks at the biggest animal on earth.
In the afternoon the sun broke through the clouds and the sea was very flat. Consequently we spotted the whales already from a great distance. This time we sailed into the western part of the bay and encountered two feeding humpback whales. They surfaced right next to our boat with the mouth full of water and prey. Suddenly a minke whale surfaced very close to one of the humpback whales and joined the feeding party. Furthermore many birds were circling around and picking up the food from the sea surface. We had a great time with the wildlife all around us. And on the way back we had our own “feeding party”, enjoying the delicious hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls. 😉
Luisa, guide
Blue whale (photo: Luisa Klotz)
Feeding humpback whale (photo: Luisa Klotz)
