23 December 2009

Whales

Today around 09:30 ship's time, two finback whales appeared on the starboard side of the ship. We're now crossed south of 60°G and are required to have whale watchers on bridge when we stop to take samples. We watched for whales the whole night long and into the early morning hours. Nothing! Only after we had steamed quite a ways toward the next station we get the call from the bridge: Whales!!! Dropping everything that we were doing, the whole ship stormed off to the bridge with our cameras in hand. First at a distance, but then coming closer, we could see the spray coming from their blowholes. In the end, the animals were only 150m away from the edge of the boat, and it was a magnificent show to observe them. After a few minutes, they lost interest in the Polarstern and made their way west. What remains are the photos. One of them you can see here. I hope I'll be able to share more experiences like this with you.

Best wishes,

Ulrich Breitsprecher

Translation: Matt Konfirst

Photo: Ulrich Breitsprecher