[CINC] PID Perspective, 6/10

[John Kuizenga]

Greetings Fellow Naturalist! A little late on a 6/10 posting, but I wanted
to share a few PID observations from the fly-bridge!
Blues where out in force on 6/10, exhibiting some of their unique behaviors
about four miles north of the west end of SCI. It was a wild day behind the
lens with Blue's on all sides, an mingling among them, 6-8 Humps. For well
over an hour we watched a group of 8-10 Blue's feeding in-tight
(inside 1/2 mile) to the CX, while those on the outside (2-3 miles out).
moved-in periodically to replace there brethren who were off to other parts
of the briny deep. It's difficult to estimate the numbers, but aided by
excellent visibility, I'm guessing there were another 10-15 distinct Blue
Blows in the 2-3 mile range? It was a bit challenging keeping them all
straight in the photo log, but what a sight! There where blows everywhere
and in-between bouts of lost steering, Mat was saying "I got to get in touch
with John C." (for tagging) and I hope he did?  Were it not for my untimely
pressure on the shutter button, on one occasion, I would have captured a
Blue and a Hump in the same frame, with the Hump trailing the Blue by not
more than 25' and out less than 50 yds. These two species may not
communicate with each other (?) but these two individuals were sure hanging
tight for 15-20 seconds. Mat indicated, he'd never seen a Blue and a Hump in
that close proximity to each other!  Their lung capacity and blow force is
something to behold, which was aptly demonstrated by the many seconds of
vapor hang time and preservation of their blows tall bushy shape, in spite
of 20 knot winds.  The numbers (Blue's) weren't surprising in view of the
amount of small clouds of krill visible at the surface, which Mat, on
several occasions, announced to the passengers. We watched the orange krill
being ingested, presumably depleted of nutritive value and then, on two
occasions voided, the end result (no pun intended) was more orange ocean.
Others behaviors included, both horizontal and vertical lunge feeding and at
least half a dozen flukes I personally witnessed.   We'd observed all this
Blue surface activity for fifteen minutes and than as if on cue from Mrs.
Big (sorry guys!) all surface behavior ceased. The Big Ones were very
thoughtful however, because just as I got on top of my paperwork (log) they
resumed their behaviors. That being said, general speaking, because the
plentiful krill near the surface their dives tended to be shallow with
abbreviated "down times"   Incidentally, the water temp is creeping up and
even at the "slot", three to four miles off SCI, it was 62.3 degrees.
These observations were only of the Blue's, meanwhile the Humps were going
through their repertoire of behaviors, but that's another story and I was in
a Blue Mode today! Here's a toast to the Big Ones, and how fortunate we are
to spend time among them! John