The Wanderer
$70.00 USD
It was a hot day, clear skies, equatorial sun. A friend and I were chatting on the back deck of our boat, looking for blue whales. I saw something out of the corner of my eye.
“That’s a humpback whale,” was my gut reaction, but I wasn’t sure. All I really saw was a blurry blob in the distance, for a split-second at that. The logical portion of my brain countered, “No you idiot, there aren’t any humpbacks here.”
Here was the Indian Ocean, south of Sri Lanka, an area that isn’t known for humpback whales.
I turned to my friend, who had traveled with me to see humpbacks on several occasions. “Did you see that?” I asked.
“No,” she replied.
“Huh, I’m probably imagining things, but I thought I saw a humpback.” She thought I was nuts. Nothing new.
Moments later, I saw a blow, one that again suggested a humpback whale. A small dorsal fin broke the surface as the mystery animal dived, heading our way.
Given the timing between the blow and seeing the dorsal (blow, count 1, count 2, see dorsal), I mumbled half to myself, half to my friends, “That’s either a humpback whale, or it’s the world’s smallest blue.” The cadence of a blue whale, you see, would be something more like blow, count 1, count 2, count 3, go to lunch, have tea and/ or a nap, possibly read a short novel, eventually see dorsal and/ or fluke. (Grant me the poetic license to exaggerate for dramatic effect.)
We slipped into the water and I went down about 10m (33ft) to wait. The nose cone took form as the whale approached. There was no doubt. It was a humpback!
As the whale strolled past, we looked one another in the eye.
“What the heck are you doing here?!” we both thought.
It was a young male, around 8-9m (25-30ft) in length, traveling from west to east, all alone as best as I could tell.
He circled back to our boat, pulled up alongside, then splashed us with several slaps of his fluke to inform us that it was time to play.
During the hour+ that the whale chose to engage us, we swam around one another, under and over each other, in figure-8 patterns even, twisting and pretzel-ing through each other’s wakes. As you can perhaps sense from the swooshing and stream of bubbles pictured here, the whale loved every second.
Where this wandering whale came from and where it was headed is a mystery. There is no documented humpback community in the area, and there was no fluke ID match with the closest known population, which is resident in the Arabian Sea. Since this encounter, a few other humpbacks have been seen in the vicinity, though the purpose and extent of their presence remains unknown.
Each print is chopped with my logo. Sizes listed are the dimensions of the printed image in inches (see FAQ for equivalent sizes in centimeters). There is an additional white border around the image to allow for framing. A complete list of image and paper sizes can be found in the FAQ.
“That’s a humpback whale,” was my gut reaction, but I wasn’t sure. All I really saw was a blurry blob in the distance, for a split-second at that. The logical portion of my brain countered, “No you idiot, there aren’t any humpbacks here.”
Here was the Indian Ocean, south of Sri Lanka, an area that isn’t known for humpback whales.
I turned to my friend, who had traveled with me to see humpbacks on several occasions. “Did you see that?” I asked.
“No,” she replied.
“Huh, I’m probably imagining things, but I thought I saw a humpback.” She thought I was nuts. Nothing new.
Moments later, I saw a blow, one that again suggested a humpback whale. A small dorsal fin broke the surface as the mystery animal dived, heading our way.
Given the timing between the blow and seeing the dorsal (blow, count 1, count 2, see dorsal), I mumbled half to myself, half to my friends, “That’s either a humpback whale, or it’s the world’s smallest blue.” The cadence of a blue whale, you see, would be something more like blow, count 1, count 2, count 3, go to lunch, have tea and/ or a nap, possibly read a short novel, eventually see dorsal and/ or fluke. (Grant me the poetic license to exaggerate for dramatic effect.)
We slipped into the water and I went down about 10m (33ft) to wait. The nose cone took form as the whale approached. There was no doubt. It was a humpback!
As the whale strolled past, we looked one another in the eye.
“What the heck are you doing here?!” we both thought.
It was a young male, around 8-9m (25-30ft) in length, traveling from west to east, all alone as best as I could tell.
He circled back to our boat, pulled up alongside, then splashed us with several slaps of his fluke to inform us that it was time to play.
During the hour+ that the whale chose to engage us, we swam around one another, under and over each other, in figure-8 patterns even, twisting and pretzel-ing through each other’s wakes. As you can perhaps sense from the swooshing and stream of bubbles pictured here, the whale loved every second.
Where this wandering whale came from and where it was headed is a mystery. There is no documented humpback community in the area, and there was no fluke ID match with the closest known population, which is resident in the Arabian Sea. Since this encounter, a few other humpbacks have been seen in the vicinity, though the purpose and extent of their presence remains unknown.
Each print is chopped with my logo. Sizes listed are the dimensions of the printed image in inches (see FAQ for equivalent sizes in centimeters). There is an additional white border around the image to allow for framing. A complete list of image and paper sizes can be found in the FAQ.
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