[CINC] 08-24-09 CX Report!

[Christopher Carlson]

Hi nature crew,

Just the facts ma'am:

1 x Blue Whale
1 x Humpback Whale
30 or so Risso's Dolphins
Several hundred Common Dolphins
1 x Phantom Minke Whale

A great trip overall Monday aboard the Condor Express with Captain Mat and
fellow naturalists Debbie and Carolyn. It was a pretty foggy day, and at one
point the fog seemed impenetrable, but it ended up being not too bad.We had
folks from all over, including Texas, Louisiana, New York, the UK, Spain,
Switzerland, Italy, and a lot of Germany people, who were all very easygoing
and great to talk to, particularly the conversations I held with a few
professors aboard about the evolution of whales, which is always a fun
topic. They were all eager to have a "whale of a good time," as one
gentleman from Summerland told me who seemed to have an unending supply of
whale puns ("If that whale had a hit single, it would be Kriller," "I wonder
what it's like to be an orthodontist for Odontocetes," and many more!). They
were not disappointed. We apparently spotted a Minke Whale not too far along
in our trip but it only came up once and I never spotted it. Oh well, so it
goes! But later in the trip we managed to find a giant blue and a
lunge-feeding humpback doing their things in the fields of krill along the
western end of Santa Rosa Island. The lunging humpback allowed for some
great shots of the roof of his mouth, the tongue, and the ventral pleats. It
was an impressive sight.

On the way back we managed to find a small group of Risso's who came quite
close to the boat and a large-ish Common group that fascinated the crowd
with their acrobatics. We arrived back into town a little late but there
were no complaints. Fascinating the crowd, it's just the daily routine these
days, ain't it? We're all lucky to be involved in all this whale action, no
doubt!

Question of the day that I was not able to answer: Are whales left or
right-flippered? Like, do they favor one pectoral fin over another? Or do
they just kind of wing it? A cursory Google search yields the following
article: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=98161&page=1 , which
gives a brief statement saying there was a study that concluded that
humpback whales seem to favor their right side. If anyone has more
information, let me know!

Thanks to Anna Hilliard for giving me this awesome trip! Until we meet
again, landlubbers.

Chris Carlson
chrisjamescarlson at gmail.com
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