Scrimshaw
The weather was unbelievably beautiful for Friday’s Wake Up with the Whales Cruise…blue skies, light winds and very calm seas. Throughout the course of the cruise we got glimpses of 5 different Humpbacks. With the exception of one lone Humpback who surfaced and spouted several times before diving about 250 yards from us, all the others were between 400 and 800 yards away. Since the ocean was so calm, we were able to deploy the hydrophone for quite awhile, and we got to listen to a wide variation of sounds.
But, even though we saw 5 different Humpbacks and even though we heard quite a few more, we didn’t think this trip qualified as an Ocean Sports Whale Watch Cruise, so we called it a “fluke” and invited everyone aboard to join us again for FREE on another Whale Watch Cruise.
Mahalo,
Claire
Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day: Starting out as a way to pass time between whale sightings and hunts on the whaling ships in the mid18th century, “scrimshawing” (or the art of carving intricate designs on to whale teeth, bones and baleen) survived until the ban on commercial whaling went into effect. The etched designs were originally produced by sailors using sailing needles, and were colored with candle soot and tobacco juice to bring the designs into view. Today, hobbyists still create scrimshaw — but they use bones and tusks from non-endangered and non-protected animal species like camels, buffalo and even warthogs