A Whale Of A Tail!

Got a whale of a tale to tell ya, lads
A whale of a tale or two
'Bout the flappin' fish and the girls I've loved
On nights like this with the moon above
A whale of a tale and it's all true
I swear by my tattoo

-- Disney's "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea"

After my last dive, I went on a whale watching tour. Dominica is believed to be the only place with a resident pod of Sperm Whales. Sperm Whales are incredibly beautiful animals, gentle giants of the sea second in size only to the Blue Whale. They are incredibly deep divers, able to reach depths of up to 2 miles! (The maximum depth for humans with special scuba equipment is about 200 ft).

This pod currently has seven members, which are all named. Individuals are identified primarily by their tail flukes, since each one is unique. We sighted the first one fairly quickly, when we were just 1 mile from shore. We were not able to identify this one from the photos we had available.

Then we sighted a side-by-side pair. This time we were able to clearly identify them as "Quasimodo" and "Fingers". The whales typically surface for about 10 minutes to breathe and oxygenate their blood cells. Then they prepare to deep dive again. It is at this time that their tail rises out of the water and you get a couple of seconds to try to identify it from the tail fluke pattern. One whale dives first, then the second follows about 20 seconds later. See if you can figure out which is which by comparing the tails in the video to the photo above.

The star though, was clearly Scar who stole the show. Scar is an adolescent male born here to this pod in 2001. He was named for a large scar across his dorsal hump acquired as an infant due to a close tangle with a fast moving boat. But he is very familiar with this particular whale watching boat -- a 50' catamaran -- having seen it frequently since he was 1 month old. He has become a crowd favorite endearing himself to tourists and locals alike. It's said that he would come when called. He would come when you clapped your hands and yelled "Come to Papa!". However, Scar has not been seen since January. It was assumed that he left the pod to seek his fortune in the open ocean, as males of his age will often do. But to the great surprise of the locals, Scar made an re-entrance today!

We sighted Scar in the distance and pointed our boat in his direction. We didn't know it was Scar yet of course, but right away we could see there was something different about this whale. While the other whales were indifferent to our presence, Scar recognized our boat immediately (probably due to the characteristic sound of the motor) and swam straight towards us! We did not have to move at all, just sit and wait for him to come to us. He approached the boat very closely, then swam right under the boat from one side to the other! Then he circled our boat a couple of times, seemingly posing for pictures! Finally he showed us his tail, allowing us to positively confirm it was Scar by comparing it to previous pictures (Sinead is holding the previous Scar photo). We could see that Scar had acquired one new indentation on the right side of his tail that was not present in the last picture.

Seeing whales is always a joyful experience. But to have one approach so closely and bond with us for a few moments is truly special! About the only thing that would have been better is to be be in the water with the whales, with scuba equipment :)