A Whale of a Tale - Anguillan Style

When your favorite Fisherman calls at 11:00 am and says - “Hey Jackie, there’s a family of whales in Captains Bay right now. Meet me at the dock in Island Harbour and we will go see them.” The only appropriate response is “Absolutely!” You throw everything into your waterproof bag and make a beeline for Island Harbour. The fact that you have forgotten the essentials like water and suntan lotion is immaterial, because there is no time to waste.

Whales close to land are a rare site these days. Long gone are the days when they cruised along Shoal Bay playfully jumping in the water and putting on a great show. (And as I write this piece, 2 are seen in Shoal Bay East. But alas, that is another story!)

Despite a few isolated sightings on the south side of Anguilla, most are seen several miles out in deeper and rougher water. This is not the best option for those with - shall we say - less than seaworthy legs! In reality, it is probably the best place for whales to find food.

As I arrive, Patrick’s 28 foot fishing boat - Opportunity, is fueled up and ready to depart. We shove off for the 5 minute ride from the Island Harbour dock to Captain’s Bay in the East.

The backstory here is that Patrick was out fishing and pulling traps around Scrub in the early morning. On his return, he ran into a pod of two adults with a calf close into shore. Another adult was seen in deeper water to the north. He felt this was the best chance for me to see them up close as I had been trying to capture them for some time.

Just two minutes off the dock and Patrick has spotted the family surfacing and blowing. I of course, see nothing! With that less than firm - I’ll take your word for it look - we press onward. Honestly, whales are huge! This should not be something you can miss right?

To be fair, I can find a bird in thick bush a mile off on a gloomy day. It’s what I do! Patrick can find fish 20 miles off in rough seas. In this case, he has found one of the largest aquatic mammals cruising in the crystal blue-green waters of Captain’s Bay!

Running full throttle to the bay, Patrick is getting more and more excited. It is literally not until we are on top of them, that I finally see what he sees. Three massive dark figures under the water swimming side by side. As he yells they are coming up, the calf surfaces and blows off the bow.

When I tell you that sound of the calf blowing takes your breath away, I am not kidding. Do you just watch, film, photograph? All I could do was watch for a few seconds. The three are no more that 300 feet from Opportunity.` They are close enough that you can feel the spray.

After some time, photography girl kicks back into reality. I begin snapping photos as the calf quietly slips under the water again. Thinking that my awe and hesitation have cost me the opportunity to capture the event on film, I am surprised as both adults surface and blow side by side. We are literally in the middle of a whale family party!

Patrick is very careful not to intrude on their space, knowing full well that one false move such as inadvertently separating the calf from its parents, could be lethal. An adult Humpback weighing 40 tons is nothing to mess with! He is all about giving them space to enjoy their time. This is perhaps one of the reasons Patrick is such a successful fisherman. He respects the power of the sea and the wildlife within.

The family continued to circle around Captain’s Bay for at least 3 hours. They were very curious about the boat and the crazy photographer lady on board snapping pictures. Several times they chose to come close to the bow as we drifted silently on the water. When they swam under the boat on several occasions, we collectively held our breath. 50 to 80 foot of water beneath the boat, suddenly seemed too small!

But each time they would surface and blow several hundred feet from the boat. An adult Humpback whale surfaces every 7 to 15 minutes, while calves must surface every 3 to 5 minutes.

As a bit of background, Humpback whales frequent Anguilla’s waters from February to May as part of their migration north to their feeding grounds. They have just spent the summer much farther south birthing their calves. The graphic below gives a few useful details about this species including their diet. According to Patrick, they hunt Jacks quite regularly in Anguilla’s waters.

You can learn more about the impacts of climate change and this species by following this link: https://phys.org/news/2015-12-whales-threat-climate-impacts-migration.html

Another interesting fact is that “Humpback whales are identified by the underside and trailing edge of their tail flukes; each one is different just like a fingerprint.”

This is just one of the many articles on this topic you will find on the internet. https://www.oceanicsociety.org/resources/whale-fluke-identification-guide/

We were very lucky to have these particular whales give us a pretty clear look at their flukes as they began to dive together. Based on the size alone, the tail in the foreground is that of the adult male, with the adult female behind.

The calf is highly dependent on its mother for the first 8 to 12 months of its life. It will consume approximately 150 gallons of high fat whale milk per day. It weighs approximately a ton at birth and will double its weight by 5 months of age.

Besides drinking milk, the calf spends most of its day learning how to navigate open waters to make the long migratory journey. I expect this is why the family was spending so much time in the shallow waters of Captain’s Bay.

At a certain point, the family appeared to quickly feed and then headed out to open water. We both felt we had been blessed with an extraordinary experience, so Patrick pointed the boat back to Island Harbour.

I am not sure what made him look behind us, but to our surprise the pod was moving back into Captain’s Bay. They were putting on quite a show while making their way back with all three breaching.

Once inside the bay, they continued their display including some amazing pectoral fin slapping. Breaching, and fin slapping are most likely how whales communicate, as the sound travels long distances under water. On the other hand, some sites say that tail slapping is a sign of displeasure or aggression by whales. Thankfully they did not display tail slapping behavior around us.

And then there was the epic camera operator fail, as one of the adults breached!

Shortly after this breach, they moved back out to deeper water and we called it a day. It was an extraordinary experience, and many thanks go out to Patrick Webster for making all of this possible!

To view our YouTube companion reel, click on the link below! Apologies for the camera bounce and background chatter.