Having finished off birds, damselflies, and dragonflies, John Avise has a new topic for us this Sunday: whales. John’s captions are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.
Whale-watching Trips, Part 1. The World’s Largest Animal.
Coastal Southern California promotes itself as one of the whale-watching capitals of the world, and indeed many whale-watching boats operate out of this area, taking tourists on off-shore excursions to view cetaceans and other sea-life. I‘ve been on quite a few of these several-hour trips, and they’ve nearly always provided wildlife treats that will be the subjects of this photographic series. Today we begin with photos of a whale species that passes through this area during the winter months on its migratory travels. An adult Blue Whale also happens to be the largest animal that has ever inhabited our planet.
Blue Whale, Baleanoptera musculus:
Blue Whale closer up:
Blue Whale fluke:
Blue Whale spout:
Blue Whale, blowhole close-up:
Blue Whale, dorsal fin:
Blue Whale, longitudinal view:
Wow John: from damsel flies to blue whales! It’s like the length scale equivalent of daily life to geologic time. These guys are up to 100 feet long…bigger than my house! Amazing. Thanks as always.
^^^what he said! 😁
Thanks! The photos capture how massive these whales are.
Amazing pictures. And to think that the world almost lost these magnificent creatures. (They are still endangered.)
Very nice. Thanks.
Very impressive!
By coincidence, I was out whale-watching yesterday here in Australia. Saw more than a dozen humpbacks, some coming close to the headland I was watching them from.