Week # 2 offered up a staggering number of whales. The totals for this time of the year far surpass anything we have seen in our 19 years of plying these waters. Huge numbers of humpbacks allowed us to identify more in one day (9) than we have ever identified in an entire season previously (8). Blue whales continued to fill the waters almost everywhere we went, and we had a grand dolphin jumping show just off the north side of Isla Carmen.
Bait balls with their attendant diving birds and rushing dolphins appeared here and there and we were able to park and video underwater a vortex of hundreds of thousands of fish moving this way and that in reaction to dolphin attacks. It is a beautiful and mesmerizing video. Our captain Alberto was able to net catch a few hundred of these fish and the few we took home became tasty snacks served up by Sather. We had one very easy going blue whale that had a scar on it’s back and the views of its entire body were there for everyone to see.
Martha Roth and her family of 5 joined us for this remarkable week and fair winds allowed us many days and hours on the sea. Dolphin totals were also gigantic and one pod of common dolphins numbered around 1500 individuals. Martha and family enjoyed plenty of beach time on the islands and were avid snorkelers.
I’m left with the everlasting memory form week two of surface feeding whales and thick patches of krill right at the waters surface. We travelled through and caught krill and even on a number of occasions watched as krill leapt out of the water in numbers so high that it sounded as if a light rain was falling.
This place is lit up, teeming with life, and gives us all great joy to be witness to and share a bit of it with you all. And oh yes almost forgot, we had pilot whales this week as well! Who know what week 3 will bring? Stay tuned.
Comments