Posted on 11/25/2022 11:50:50 AM PST by nickcarraway
A Monterey Bay whale-watching company has documented the first-ever newborn humpback calf found off the Monterey coast.
Monterey Bay Whale Watch Company was hosting a whale-watching tour on Nov. 4 when they noticed something unusual in the water. A drone flight by Evan Brodsky, the crew's resident cinematographer, captured the moment: A newborn humpback whale calf alongside its mother, something that had never been documented in Monterey Bay.
University of California, Santa Cruz professor Ari Friedlaender has been studying the underwater behavior of marine mammals for more than 25 years and he said that the sighting of this calf is uncommon for this area.
His expertise on the subject gave us insight as to why such a small calf is in Monterey Bay, when typically a calf sighting would be seen in warmer waters further South, like Mexico and Costa Rica.
“There's a couple of reasons why this could potentially happen. One is that as you get a population of whales that grows, they may not all get pregnant at the same time. And just like in humans, you might have babies that are born a little premature. Some might take a little bit longer to be born, and so that may have been a mother who was on her way to the calving grounds and just had to give birth a little bit before she reached that area,” said Friedlaender.
Professor Friedlaender also pointed out some dangers the small calf might face. For one, the calf has not fully developed and lacks the thermal skin layer protection to survive the cold waters in Monterey Bay. Another threat to the calf is its main predator, the killer whale.
Although the sighting of the small calf is a wonderful view on the Monterey Bay coast, professor Friedlaender does not believe this sighting will be common.
There is a video at the site.
sadly, an orca’s hors d’oeuvre. (The great circle of life, Poomba!)
They are common in my neck of the woods, Hawaii. Just after the first of the year. We don’t have a lot of Orcas.
Killer whales/Orcas have been feeding on baby humpbacks of the California Coast forever.
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Below is a video of Orcas eating baby humpback’s tongue.
About 20 years ago, my wife and I watch a herd of Orcas feeding on baby humpbacks south of Carmel and fairly close to shore.
Warning this is very graphic. If you love humpbacks, don’t go to this site:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK_m_3ZQN8Q
and the baby humpback’s name is...
Fetterman, or fetterfish... I forget which...
So they aren’t blaming globull warming?
T’was just Fetterman going for a swim......
It is obvious that Orcas eat baby humpback whales as a result of manmade climate change.
Sometimes the bull whale just gets tired out.
How do you say "Baby, please, I am not from Havana"?
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