Good evening everyone, we had an incredibly special afternoon on the water today, we had the chance to show our passengers a breaching minke whale! All whales have the ability to breach but some species. such as humpbacks and Orca tend to breach more often but when you get the chance to see a minke whale breach it’s a very special sight. Researchers are not positive why whales breach but there are many ideas such as knocking external parasites off, strengthening muscles in the case of calves, attracting attention of potential mates or maybe even just for fun.
 |
| This is the whale who is breaching |
Of course we made time to stop with seals….always 🙂
Thanks for checking in today,
Cheers,
Danielle
Great job, Danielle!!! Wish we could have been there.
I bet there's video, too, yes? Maybe from one (or more) of your guests?
Mike
Wow! Great photos!
Wow! Great photos!
Awesome shots! Minke whales are so cool 🙂 Out here on the west coast (Vancouver Island) we have observed minke whales attacked (and then eaten!) by Transient (Biggs) killer whales. I'm not familiar with the food preferences of the killer whales you have out there but maybe this whale had a close call with some killer whales? Cheers!
What a show for your guests aboard the Quoddy. Love it!
Danielle, what a show and how wonderful for the guests of the Quoddy. Keep posting, love the pictures!
Danielle, these have to be the best breach images of minkes I have ever seen. You are an extremely good photographer! Did you get answers to your questions?
Bill Rossiter
Cetacean Society International
FB/CSI Whalelovers //csiwhalesalive.org
Thank you so much Bill for your kind words. They really mean a lot.
As for the answers, not really….lots of different opinions but the blood seems to be coming from very small regions, perhaps there were external parasite, barnacles maybe. Some people thought rubbing on the ocean floor. We were in over 300 feet of water in a very strong tidal current, she was not on the ocean floor between breaches, that's for sure, but maybe before the activity started. We had a minke breaching a few days ago too….seems to be something we see a little more often around here. Thanks again for your comments,
Cheers,
Danielle