R/V Song of the Whale left the port of Monaco early on Tuesday morning, bound for Piraeus, the port of Athens, where we will meet the Greek and Turkish participants who are joining the team for the Northern Aegean Survey. The day was beautiful, but cool with very little wind and excellent sighting conditions. We had very few sightings as we entered the Pelagos Sanctuary but soon this changed; in the afternoon, we had several striped dolphin encounters bow-riding ahead of the boat, but the stars of the show were the Pelagos fin whales. Several pairs of fin whales surrounded Song of the Whale, milling slowly and curiously surfacing around us. The amazing close encounter lasted for an hour or so, and we photographed their light coloured chevrons (skin markings) to allow potential later photo-identification, while the Song of the Whale drifted, engine in neutral. In itself, this would have been a remarkable encounter, but as we watched them slowly surface once more, one of the animals appeared and suddenly launched out of the water in a huge breach and splash. We were fortunate enough to watch as the same whale breached twice more. Witnessing first hand and at close quarters, the second largest whale on earth hurling its huge body out of the water, not once but three times, was an amazing sight and makes places like the Pelagos Sanctuary, which was designed to protect these endangered species, seem even more special and critical to conserve.
Anna Cucknell