Hi all, just wanted to share this one !
Arrived here to Portland (Victoria, Australia) on Wednesday evening & by 9:00 am Thursday morning, ALL of my expectations of this mission had been fulfilled… I had seen my first Blue whale !!!
Within minutes of getting out to the eastern end of the Bonny Upwellings, we saw a large breach just ahead of us. As we moved closer, something breached again & sure enough it was identified as a ‘Blue’.
The first thing we could see was a long thin submerged shape glowing with that tropical turquoise/neon blue, traveling along on it’s way to the surface. Then finally, the whale would break the surface with a loud deep groan, combined with a tall misty spout of krill breath & the blue/turquoise skin turned grey in the natural sunlight as it rose above the surface. After the blow, water would pore off its back like a speeding submarine that has just burst to the surface. Several seconds would pass by before the dorsal fin appeared. It was then that it occurred to me how big these things really are & this is still only the middle half of the whale that we could see !!!
We watched it lunge sideways at the scattered patches of bright red krill with it’s mouth wide open engulfing several square meters of krill at a time.
For a little over 2 hours we drifted around & watched the ..biggest ..living ..moving thing on this planet swim, dive, twist & turn.
Adios
Ben
