Humpbacks

During the winter months the Bahamas occasionally get a sighting of a humpback whale migrating northward. For some reason a few of the migrating whales take a route a little closer to our islands and allow us the wonderful experience of seeing them.

However, on the 30th December 2011, Joseph Strickland and his crew who had been staying on the Highlander in Hope Town harbour, came across an entangled humpback whale. Due to the courage and calm response of Joe and his team, they managed to release the 40' humpback. The whale had been entangled in a thick rope of approximately 600' in length attached to a fishtrap. The animal was found off of Sea Spray marina in 40 feet of water (off Elbow Cay, Abaco). They managed to free the animal of the fishpot which it had been dragging, the pot bouncing across the bottom, as well as freeing the animal of the majority of rope, with only 20' of line remaining on the whale.

We would sincerely like to thank Mr and Mrs Strickland and their family for their extrodinary effort to free this animal, and also to report the encounter in detail to us!

Unfortunately as humpbacks are one of the more coastal whales, they often end up entangled in fishing gear, and come into contact with fishing pots, as well as being susceptible to vessel strikes. However, this species have made a remarkable recovery since the whaling era and in the North Atlantic abundance estimates are now approximately 12,000 humpback whales.

A better start to the New Year provided us with a single humpback sighting on Saturday 14th January off of Cape Santa Maria, Long Island.

Finally, on Wednesday 8th February, a mother-calf humpback pair were spotted off of Dutch Bar, Spanish Wells, providing us with these beautiful pictures!

Thanks to all for your sighting reports!