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#babywhale, #googlethehumpback, #humpback, #monterey, #travel, #whale, #whales, babywhale, humpback, monterey, travel, whale, whales, whalewatching
Years ago, the cool and romantic thing to do was to pay to name a star after someone. Today, after a sizeable donation, you can name a whale! How cool is that?
Being on the water every weekend, I see a lot of whales, but none of them has inspired me to name them until the little guy/gal I ran into this past weekend in Monterey. I wasn’t even supposed to be in Monterey last week. I was supposed to be swimming with humpbacks and their babies in Mo’orea, but the Society Islands went into full lockdown five days before I was to leave, and the tour company cancelled the trip with a raincheck. I had to think of a consolation prize to keep myself from being too disappointed, and you can’t go wrong with Monterey during lunge-feeding season. They say everything happens for a reason, so maybe this little whale and I were meant to be.
Keeping in mind that baby and “teenage” whales are common this time of year, I saw numerous cow/calf pairs on each of my trips out last week, including already-named babies Fluke Skywalker and baby Mavericks, who mugged our boat.
It’s sometimes difficult for me to tell what I’m seeing until I get home and can look at my photos on a larger screen. My little whale was the exception to this rule. I didn’t need my reading glasses to see this whale was very different from others and would likely become an easily-recognizable “local celebrity” similar to Patches the bottlenose, Casper the Risso’s dolphin, Flue the hybrid, and Twitch the humpback.
The baby whale that stood out of the crowd on a long four days of whale watching is one that had been swimming with its mother. As the mom took off and left her baby for a while, the baby began doing tail throws, breaching, and rolling. It’s as if mom said, “You stay here. I’ll be right back. Keep splashing so I know you’re okay.” And splash this little whale did, over and over and over.
As we passengers took endless photos of the show this little whale put on, I fell in love with the unusual white patches around its eyes, white spot on its chin, and solid white pectoral fins and fluke. The patches around its eyes gave it the appearance of having big, googly eyes that roll around, similar to the kind you see in children’s craft projects.
As soon as mother returned, the show stopped as if she said, “Okay, stop playing with the hoomans.” The calf immediately calmed down, and the mother and calf quietly swam away together.
I saw several other calves exhibit similar behavior this past weekend, but the googly-eyed calf with unusual all-white pectoral fins, white eye patches, and a white fluke was the calf that will be easily recognizable not only by me (without my reading glasses) but by researchers and others in the whale-watching community.
And so I adopted and named my first whale. I received the birth or adoption certificate a week later. What did I name this googly-eyed baby whale? I named it Google. Now, for the rest of little Google’s life, every time someone around the world reports a sighting of Google, I’ll receive notifications of where he/she is and how he/she is doing. Currently, he/she is still in Monterey Bay.
If little Google migrates to Mo’orea next year, maybe I’ll get a chance to swim with him/her. If Google migrates to Costa Rica or Mexico, I’ll likely receive notifications as he/she passes by Orange County, and I’ll be able to go out and visit!
The cool thing about adopting and naming a whale is that I don’t have to walk it or feed it or clean up after it. If I found out something bad happened to little Google, I might call a vet, but that’s the extent of my “chores.” Of course, little Google knows nothing about me, but maybe, someday, we’ll have a close encounter.
Humpback whales can live 50-80 years, so there’s a good chance little Google will outlive me. It makes me feel good knowing that, hopefully, long after I’m gone, people will easily recognize the unusually-pigmented humpback whale and say, “There’s the whale that Kristie named! I used to know that chick!”
I’m attaching “baby” pics of little Google below and to my Facebook author page. The first photo is of Google learning to lunge feed. Sometimes Google forgot to open his/her mouth when coming up, which was kinda cute. Maybe you will recognize him/her on one of your whale watching trips and send in pics to www.happywhale.com so I can know how he/she is doing.
May you all adopt a piece of nature and help to make the world a better place.
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