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Written by Andrew Stevenson
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A break in the weather gives us a perfect day as we set off at 9.30 am on Sea Slipper with Michael Smith, Camilla Stringer, Carol Dixon, Kelly Winfield and myself. The air quality is fantastic, we can see forever and although there are large ocean swells there are no white caps, wind being variable to 5 knots. At Sally Tuckers we find strong upwellings and plenty of foam on the surface where the upwellings are. Dropped hydrophone over but no whales. Radio call from a fishing boat to say that there are two whales on the northeast side of Challenger. As we set off we pick up two whales on the ledge north of Sally Tuckers but the two whales seem to change course and head for Challenger so we parallel them as they move along at 5-6 knots. Approaching Challenger Bank we see multiple spouts, and surface activity including what looks like the pecs of a young calf. Again, could this be the young calf born here? Soon I am in the water with four whales who turn out to be juveniles, I guess two years old. They move in tight formation never more than a pectoral fin away from each other. One of them is a flirt and exposes her underside to me, revealing she is a female. Curious, they swim by very close and multiple times, always tightly packed together.
 
 
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