A Whale of a Tale

This photo might not look like much, but it's actually a crappy photo of one of the most awesome things ever:

First some background: the sea water around Antarctica is amazingly clear, allowing you to see 10 to 15 metres below the surface of the water. This is useful in watching the penguins swim underwater and also for seeing just how far down the icebergs really go.

On the morning of day two we were cruising around the waters below a glacier in a ten-person Zodiac raft. Mostly we were watching for chunks calving off the glacier and also keeping an eye out for clear pieces of ancient ice to take back to the boat for scotch on the rocks in the afternoon. On the way back to the ship the call came on the radio that a minke whale had been spotted nearby so we cruised over to have a look. We saw it surface a few times from the middle distance and then lost it. Suddenly,
Really Cool Whale Experience #1 happened: the whale swam almost directly under our boat, just beside us from aft to bow only a few meters below the surface. With the clear water we were able to see its entire length (about 8 meters) as it darted below the waves. I'm pretty sure there were polar bears in northern Canada who were able to hear the reaction of the eight of us on the boat.

Sadly, everyone's rushed attempts to photograph the event ended up focused on the surface of the water or poorly aimed, resulting in photos like the one above. (You can somewhat make out a bit of the whale in the top-left corner.) That evening I found one of the Standford students who had one of the more professional-looking cameras to see if he captured anything. He showed me that he got a blurry photo of its tail but nothing great, and we lamented that we'd just have to burn the memory into our brains since we had no good photographic evidence of such a cool encounter with a whale.

The bite of this "First World Problem" was largely soothed later when Really Cool Whale Experience #2 happened: two adult humpback whales decided to use the bow of our ship as a scratching post for half an hour. Everyone on board, both passenger and staff, was on the deck of the ship with their camera running back and forth making these two possibly the most photographed whales in history. (The head of the expedition team noted that you know this is an unusual experience when all the staff our out their with their own personal cameras.) With the clear water we didn't even need to wait for them to surface to take a shot, since we could see their entire bodies beneath the surface. I didn't bother taking many pics with my dinky little point-and-click pocket camera since there will be a photo exchange later, but here's one of the few I did take:

They spent about half an hour rubbing against the ship, roaring, and blowing seawater on deck. It was somewhat odd that eventually you're not sure how much longer you should watch the whales versus when you should go in to the bar to get a cocktail. The whales cooperating by staying around long enough for me to go get a rum and coke, warm up for a few minutes, then head back outside to watch them some more.

I hereby decree Dec 20, 2012 as Whale Day in all time zones intersecting Antarctica.

(Written on Dec 20.)