Mom and calf playing

Today we were surveying along and Kata, our intern, noted that it had been an hour since we had seen a whale (we have been seeing them so often, this seemed like a long time). No less than 30 seconds later an adult breached (leapt out of the water) a few hundred meters ahead of our bow! Seeing a full grown adult leap out of the water is always an impressive sight. Soon we saw that it was a mom and her calf, and we spent an hour watching the two breach, slap their pectoral fins on the water, and roll around. As scientists, we try not to anthropomorphize, but it’s hard not to think that these two weren’t having lots of  fun!

The calf is breaching while mom waves her pectoral fin