Whale Watch!
For Erica’s birthday, I took her on a whale watch here in Portland. We had a great time, and saw a lot of unexpected wildlife. While we eventually saw a few whales, the most exciting sightings were not mammalian. As the boat headed out, we saw several sea otters and a couple of pods of porpoises, which served as a nice warm up.
Erica spotted something in the distance that, while it could have been a buoy, was actually moving independently. A pair of bird watchers made an identification, which I was reluctant to believe, until the captain agreed with it and announced that we’d be slowly and quietly making our way over, in the hopes of not startling the animal and getting a good look. As we got closer, I snapped a photo.
By this time, we were catching glimpses of the body underneath the surface: the shadows of gills, a bright spot at the front, the tail that confirmed the captain’s estimate of a 20-foot-plus length… The beast kept on trucking, seemingly oblivious to our presence. People began to joke about being afraid, and talk about that bright spot being a fish in its mouth. I felt it would be asinine to correct them, and, trying to keep my mouth shut, snapped another photo.
Basking Shark! I never in my life thought I would see one, live, in the wild. This is an amazing animal, being one of two shark species known to grow larger than the Great White. It swims along, mouth wide open to catch plankton. It is unaggressive to humans. It allowed the boat to pull right alongside it, and we spent some time watching it swim and feed. Its mouth would open, and the gills would balloon outwards, and it would swim slowly like that for a long time. We eventually pulled away in search of the cetaceans, but for me, this was the highlight of the trip.
I soon spotted another fin in the distance and pointed it out. The captain said we were in for a bizarre treat, and headed towards it. It turned out to be a Mola Mola, or ocean sunfish, and was strange looking indeed. I tried to get a picture, but ruined it by putting my fingers in the way. (My phone camera has no wrist strap, and I was getting nervous about dropping it into the ocean.) Feel free to check out the Wikipedia Page on Mola Molas for photographs and information. We ended up coming across three of these things in the course of our trip.
Finally, we saw a leatherback turtle. It also let us come right up on it, and was an amazing sight. The captain claimed that in seven years of leading these tours, this was the first leatherback turtle he’d seen. It is an endangered species as well, making this a very special sight in the wild.
We eventually came across some whales, first a finback, then a pod of minkes. The finback did not let us get very close, and, while the minkes surrounded the boat, none came alongside or swam underneath.
We had a great time, and it’s likely I’ll go again someday. I do feel some reluctance, though, as the bar has been set extremely high by this amazing experience.
