This is a work in progress

In 1986 and 1987, I was naturalist on a whale watch boat and I am slowly uploading the stories of some of my encounters.

This is a map of  waters off Southern Maine where these encounters took place.

FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH FISSURE 8/31/86

It was a flat calm, sunny late August day;  so calm we could see both above and below water. We headed out to the North end of Jeffrey's Ledge on the advise of a fisherman who was there already and came upon two humpbacks blowing a few hundred yards apart.

One turned out to be Notch, a mature Humpback whale with a ragged tail that had been seen by various whale watch boats for the last 6 summers. We shut down and drifted with Notch for a while. We thought we had lost the second one, but it came to us and seemed curious about what we were up to.

The long white flippers glowed in the water as the whale approached, just below the surface. It looked like small in comparison to Notch. We watched enthralled as it repositioned itself underwater  so it was "standing" then it rose slowly to the surface and "spyhopped" intently looking us over.

When the young whale dove we thought it had lost interest....WHOOOOSH... it came up right beside us, so close  I couldn't focus my camera.

It must have been very satisfying to this young rambunctious whale to hear the thunderous foot steps of 100 people running to that side of the boat!

He glided along the full length of the boat, insuring we all got a good look, so close we could hear the water gliding off his back with a whisssh. When he exhaled it was explosive; when he inhaled it sounded like someone whistling in a big hollow tube... wonderful sounds, hard to represent accurately with words but I can still hear them in my head.

In this picture his blowhole was clamped firmly shut; he had just inhaled. You can see the fleshy ridge that forms a V around his nostrils and works as a splash guard. Whales nostrils (and those of most marine mammals) are closed when relaxed and must be pulled open to breathe.

He lay parallel to us for a bit (perhaps scoping us out with one eye), then slowly turned to face us, blowhole opening to take in a breath. It was amazing to see him move such a huge body with such languid gesture of tail and flipper! 

That summer, we called him "Barney" because he carried a "pet" barnacle, the white dot on his back, and we could identify him as soon as we saw it. But his fluke was the true identifier, since barnacles are likely to fall off when Humpbacks migrate to warmer waters.

He was just a younster, a "mere" 35-40 feet long, when full grown he would be 50+ feet!

The hands belong to the captains. He is not trying to "run away!" rather trying to get a better look topsides.

Now and then he would "spy hop" to look at us with both eyes. A whales eyes are placed on each side of their broad head and they can only see binocularly by looking down. The best way for a whale to get a good look is by spyhoping. We were looking as intently at him as he was at us. It was a very quiet, magical moment.... no one spoke.

He spread out his 15 foot flippers, sculling a little to balance himself, then lay still like a soaring bird soaring. The flipper a beautiful greenish white beneath the surface.

Humpback whales are called Megaptera novaeangliae which means big winged New Englander. With his "wings" spread he looked huge and we had to keep reminding ourselves that, being only two years old, he was still a "small" whale.

As soon as I got home I looked him up in the whale catalogue and found he was a two year old male at the time (born in 1984). He had been named FISSURE by the whale watching community and his mother was named Veil. It turns out he was known to enjoy the company of whale watch boats up and down the coast.

FISSURE 0489 Male born in 1984, his mother is Veil 0130. He was last seen in 1987.

SECOND ENCOUNTER WITH FISSURE 9/18/56

We found Fissure again two weeks later, drawn by a big commotion ..... two whales close together taillobing.

Olympia is lobtailing. No one is sure why humpbacks tail lob, scientists speculate it could be: communicating over distance, getting rid of parasites, intimidation, driving fish. Watching Fissure and Olympia it seemed like just plain fun.

Olympia and Fissure  dove and came up close together in sync several times.

We were puzzled they were together. Fissure was a two year old male at the time (seen as a calf in 1984 with his mother Veil). Olympia was a well known female who had several calves and even grand calves. As far as anyone knew she had no relationship to Fissure nor did he seem old enough to have been courting her.

Humpbacks are identified by the patterns on the underside of their fluke.

This is a photo of Olympia's fluke which she shows when taking a deep dive. Most naturalists in the Gulf of Maine can recognize her at a glance she is such a familiar even "friendly" figure.

But to be sure there is a catalog for North Atlantic Humpbacks which housed at College of the Atlantic in Maine, and maintained by  Allied Whale  .

This is a photo of Fissure's fluke as he dove right behind her.

You can see the differences in the pattern.

Soon Olympia moved away and Fissure dove following right behind . We figured he had better things to do than watch spend time with us again us so we started looking around for other whales.

We were just moving off when Fissure reappeared with a loud swooosh.... the captain immediately threw the engine out of gear!

This is Fissures dorsal fin. I am not sure how he got this scar.

He dove deep and it seemed a brief change of mind before going off to rejoin Olympia whose blow could be seen a little ways off.

Suddenly everyone was looking intently over the side, as a huge white bubble rose from 50' below us and broke the surface with a resounding bluuuuub.

Up popped Fissure right beside it.

He wagged his huge face back and forth in a slow leisurely gestures...

Then oozed onto his side, his big mouth looked like it was smiling at us... It is hard to imagine a warm blooded pickle face looking gleeful ... but I swear there was a twinkle in his eye.

He dove under the boat, causing a stampede across the deck...it must have sounded like thunder to Fissure as he glided under us.

Up came another bubble.... this is called bubble clouding, usually used by humpbacks as a way of bunching fish....it seemed Fissure was using it to keep our attention

The bubble began to fade.... where was Fissure? More stomping and stampeding and peering into the water, people trying to position themselves for where he would come up next.

hahahahaha!

He was met with thunderous applause!

  He seemed to soak up like any self respecting two year old.

He spent the next half hour spyhoping, turning this way and that. He seemed fascinated by all the people hanging over the rail trying to touch him and entertain him.

Finally we had to leave since it was getting dark ... we backed away carefully to be sure he was out of harms way. You can imagine how hard it was to leave.

On the way back a woman was sitting quietly by herself. I had taken notice of her silent intensity during the whole encounter and was curious. It turns out, several summers before she come upon a group of people, trying to rescue a beached humpback. It was a hopeless effort, even though they worked hard to keep it moist and shaded. Larger whales have no sternum and so on land their internal organs are crushed by their weight if they beach.

By nightfall, many people went home but she stayed with the few that remained talking and singing to the whale as it struggled and finally died. Fissure had been a well deserved blessing for her.