MEET MOBY DICK
A lot of different humpback whales pass by our bay in one summer, some of them stay longer and some only for a short time. Some come back while others only come once. It is always exciting to go out to on the bay and see what whales are out there. You always get a little extra happy when you see one that you know from before.
One whale that has been around quite a lot this summer is a humpback we call "Moby Dick”. It is possible to identify a humpback whale by looking at the pattern on the fluke because no two humpbacks look exactly the same so it works like a fingerprint for identification. “Moby Dick” has a completely white fluke and in addition it also has a lot of white on the belly and a special looking tail where you can see the vertebras along the end of the back, which makes it very easy to recognize.
The name ”Moby dick” partly refers to the fact that it has a lot of white on the body since the fictional sperm whale Moby Dick from Herman Mellville’s classical story is white. The name also fits very well because just as the story’s Moby Dick, our Moby Dick has been acting kind of crazy - not by eating people, but by being very active at the surface. On almost every encounter it has been doing something spectacular and out of the ordinary like breaching, flipper slapping, lob tailing or other acrobatics. It has been a very nice whale to watch and I really hope we will get to see it again next summer!
(Elin)
Below you see our Moby Dick. All photos are from different tours between 19th July - 7th August.
