56º 40. 71S, 38º 36. 82W – Scotia Sea
Today was a day at sea for those of us aboard the Endeavour as we left South Georgia for our trip to the Antarctic Peninsula. Usually days at sea are times for lectures, writing of post cards, or reading of books. This morning, however, we had the opportunity to witness something truly rare and anything but mundane. The call came from the bridge that “blows” were present off of the port side of the ship. After turning the ship for a better look the identification was that there were fin or finback whales and that they appeared to be feeding on krill. Fin whales are the second largest of the whales, at about 60 to 70 feet in length and 50 to 70 tons in weight, and therefor the second largest animal on earth. This begs the question of what is the largest animal on earth? (We will get to that shortly.) There looked to be about 5 of the animals lunging at the surface after large groups of crustacean prey, possibly herding them with their distinctive lightly colored right side of the jaw. The conditions were cold on deck as an icy southern wind whipped through the air and across our faces and fingers, but we kept binoculars and camera at the ready for the spectacular sight of feeding leviathans of the sea. Members of the natural history staff were on deck and in the bridge explaining the behavior of the animals and answering the question posed above: If the fin is the second largest animal, what is the largest? The answer is the blue whale.
The largest creature on the planet and probably the largest to have ever lived is the blue whale. Some specimens taken by whalers were over 100 feet long and well over 100 tons in weight. Blue whales, like the fins, were hunted extensively at the beginning of the 20th century. At the height of the industrial whaling epoch in the area around South Georgia, in the 1930s, tens of thousands of animals were taken annually. These mighty creatures which can devour 4 million krill in one outing and have organs the size of small automobiles were no match for the fast catcher boats and exploding harpoon cannons developed by the Norwegians. By the time the blue whale was commercially extinct over 100,000 animals had been taken from the Southern Ocean, many flensed, boiled and packaged in the ports of Stromness and Grytviken that we visited just a few days ago. This mass hunting dropped the blue whale to less than 1% of their original numbers. Their population now stands at around 1,000 individuals in the entire vast area of the Southern Ocean. This means that spotting a blue whalethese days is very difficult and rare.
As the ship got closer to the feeding whales a ball of krill appeared on the ship’s depth finder. A few moments later, as the fins continued to surface, our Expedition Leader, Tom Ritchie, was explaining the difference between a blue and a fin when a blue whale surfaced close to the ship. It wasn’t 5 to 7 fin whales feeding; it was a blue plus some fins enjoying the oceanic bounty before them. There was no longer a need for explaining the difference because there they were side by side #1 and #2. It was really exciting to realize that no one on the staff had ever seen a blue whale in these waters except for Tom and that was in the 1970s. Our Captain, Karl Lampe, has done over 50 trips to this area and never seen a blue whale. We excitedly pointed out the blue as it surfaced among the fins until the pointed hands were going in slightly different directions simultaneously. There were in fact two blue whales among the fins. The mottled gray blue color and the small dorsal fin were obvious in comparison to the larger and darker dorsal of the fin.
We encountered more fin whales later in the day and did attend lectures, write postcards, and read from novels, but the blue whales, the largest, longest, heaviest, loudest and most depleted of whales defined this day at sea.
Today was a day at sea for those of us aboard the Endeavour as we left South Georgia for our trip to the Antarctic Peninsula. Usually days at sea are times for lectures, writing of post cards, or reading of books. This morning, however, we had the opportunity to witness something truly rare and anything but mundane. The call came from the bridge that “blows” were present off of the port side of the ship. After turning the ship for a better look the identification was that there were fin or finback whales and that they appeared to be feeding on krill. Fin whales are the second largest of the whales, at about 60 to 70 feet in length and 50 to 70 tons in weight, and therefor the second largest animal on earth. This begs the question of what is the largest animal on earth? (We will get to that shortly.) There looked to be about 5 of the animals lunging at the surface after large groups of crustacean prey, possibly herding them with their distinctive lightly colored right side of the jaw. The conditions were cold on deck as an icy southern wind whipped through the air and across our faces and fingers, but we kept binoculars and camera at the ready for the spectacular sight of feeding leviathans of the sea. Members of the natural history staff were on deck and in the bridge explaining the behavior of the animals and answering the question posed above: If the fin is the second largest animal, what is the largest? The answer is the blue whale.
The largest creature on the planet and probably the largest to have ever lived is the blue whale. Some specimens taken by whalers were over 100 feet long and well over 100 tons in weight. Blue whales, like the fins, were hunted extensively at the beginning of the 20th century. At the height of the industrial whaling epoch in the area around South Georgia, in the 1930s, tens of thousands of animals were taken annually. These mighty creatures which can devour 4 million krill in one outing and have organs the size of small automobiles were no match for the fast catcher boats and exploding harpoon cannons developed by the Norwegians. By the time the blue whale was commercially extinct over 100,000 animals had been taken from the Southern Ocean, many flensed, boiled and packaged in the ports of Stromness and Grytviken that we visited just a few days ago. This mass hunting dropped the blue whale to less than 1% of their original numbers. Their population now stands at around 1,000 individuals in the entire vast area of the Southern Ocean. This means that spotting a blue whalethese days is very difficult and rare.
As the ship got closer to the feeding whales a ball of krill appeared on the ship’s depth finder. A few moments later, as the fins continued to surface, our Expedition Leader, Tom Ritchie, was explaining the difference between a blue and a fin when a blue whale surfaced close to the ship. It wasn’t 5 to 7 fin whales feeding; it was a blue plus some fins enjoying the oceanic bounty before them. There was no longer a need for explaining the difference because there they were side by side #1 and #2. It was really exciting to realize that no one on the staff had ever seen a blue whale in these waters except for Tom and that was in the 1970s. Our Captain, Karl Lampe, has done over 50 trips to this area and never seen a blue whale. We excitedly pointed out the blue as it surfaced among the fins until the pointed hands were going in slightly different directions simultaneously. There were in fact two blue whales among the fins. The mottled gray blue color and the small dorsal fin were obvious in comparison to the larger and darker dorsal of the fin.
We encountered more fin whales later in the day and did attend lectures, write postcards, and read from novels, but the blue whales, the largest, longest, heaviest, loudest and most depleted of whales defined this day at sea.
