February 1918 Conservation Luncheon Menu
Are you still trying to decide whether to take a chance and join us aboard to see the Humpbacks this season?
I don’t know if this will help you make the decision, but we’ll be operating dedicated Whale Watch Cruises through Friday (3/31), and we’re still seeing Humpbacks.
On Monday’s Wake up with the Whales Cruise, we got to see one fluke from a sounding whale a mile or so away from us…but we spent most of our time with a Mom/calf duo. Both of them were resting, but we saw them surface and spout several times during our cruise. We didn’t see Mom’s flukes (she never lifted them to do a deep dive — we figured she didn’t want to leave her little calf alone on the surface), but we did get to see both whales’ dorsal fins and peduncles.
After we returned to the mooring, we deboarded our passengers and reboarded new guests for a Private Snorkel Cruise. This time we found the same Mom/calf pod, and this time baby was AWAKE. Actually, before we got close enough to identify our Humpbacks, we thought we were looking at splashes from spinner dolphins. As we approached the splash zone, we were pleasantly surprised by the realization that we were watching our calf tail-lobbing repetitively. When an adult Humpback slaps her flukes onto the surface over and over again, we’re pretty sure she’s communicating her location, and/or her emotional state…but when a calf does the same thing, we guess he’s either burning off some of his milk-fed energy, or maybe just practicing how to be a Humpback.
Mahalo.
Claire
Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day: In 1918, in effort to stockpile more beef, mutton and pork to send to the American troops fighting the 1st World War, the US government sponsored a luncheon at the American Museum of National History in New York featuring Humpback Whale meat. Several dignitaries were invited (including Admiral Peary) to feast on the menu created by the Head Chef of Delmonico’s, and were quoted saying the meat tasted like pot roast or venison. During the luncheon, the museum’s “reliable sources” reported that if all of the 7 operational whaling stations on the Pacific Coast began processing whale for food (instead of for fertilizer), more than 20 million pounds of whale meat could be distributed to the American public during the summer months alone at a cost of 12.5 cents/pound. The idea never really caught on with the American public though.