We’re just back from another Silver Bank trip!
Straight from the log of Captain Gene from Conscious Breath Adventures:
Dear Whale Diary,
We won’t be forgetting this week any time soon. It was a delight to welcome back TWELVE returning guests this week, some already back from our last season, and some 
we haven’t had the pleasure of welcoming on board for ten years! It was heart warming to hear everyone regaling tales from their previous adventures and getting to know one another, bonding over past moments both similar and completely different. But by the trip home, it seemed everyone was in agreement over one thing: this trip might have been the most memorable for the entire lot in a long time. ()
Every day seem determined to outdo the last, despite clouds and winds that were most definitely against us for two of the early days. It turns out whales don’t mind swimming in the rain! It’s amazing how one lucky 
spot (and of course, guides with the knowledge to recognize the potential of that one lucky spot) can turn a day from worrying about seasickness to worrying about running out of camera battery.
If you have been on board with us before, you will likely have met Jeff Pantukhoff, who guides with us for the first half of each season before going to visit another whale species, the grey whales, out in Mexico (that’s Jeff videotaping whales in the rain, at right). This was Jeff”s last week this season, he’s off in Mexico right now, even as you read this Cruise 
Report. It was Jeff who spotted one mum and calf that actually spent the better part of two days with us in the end. Mum enjoyed logging on the surface for hours at a time, with her sweet little calf flanking her sides. While some calves like to stray away from their mothers from time to time to give us a good look, this baby loved doing all of her tricks and showing off right by mum’s side, or sometimes even on her nose. You know you’re having a great interaction when you can audibly hear the guests ‘aww’ing through their snorkels!
Then one of the more interesting behaviors of the 
season popped up out of nowhere. We found a mum, calf and escort- usually nothing out of the ordinary there. But the way we found them was a first. The mum would lift her tail out of the water and sort of…waggle it?! Only when an 35-40 tonne animal waggles their tail, it’s a HUGE movement. At first, we thought she was throwing off peduncle throws, but on closer inspection- it was definitely more of a waggle. This kind of behaviour has been recorded before up in Nova 
Scotia and Capt Gene thought for a minute maybe it was the same whale he’s seen up there – but not quite.
Capt Gene sent an email with a photo of the fluke to a whale-friend and supporter at Brier Island Whale Watch, chief naturalist Shelley Lonergan. After thirty years of working with the whales there, Shelley knows her Bay of Fundy whales! Shelley reminded Gene that the whale 
he saw in the Bay of Fundy last summer is named Tusk, and when Tusk does a deeper dive he wiggle-twists his tail, he doesn’t waggle it! Oops, our mistake! It turns out the whale-mum we saw was a less frequent visitor to Nova Scotia named Clamp (). We hope Clamp’s little boy calf stays healthy and she comes back to visit the Silver Bank again next year!
However, that was not the end of the interaction, not by a long shot. After about an hour of surface spectating, they turned into the most interactive trio we’ve seen this season. Both groups of swimmers were able to enjoy some quality in water time with all three whales taking their turns to approach and examine us, swimming beneath us and around us and in every which way. It was the escort that really stole the show for both
groups, though, as he treated each of us to one very elegant, very slow, and very high spy hop- from in the water! It was one of the most exciting moments of the whole season, and we could hear the whooping and happiness from one boat to another. It was truly a magical encounter, and one we are sure we’ll all be reliving for a very long time.
Naturally, the rest of the week was filled with surface activity, more swims, and even the opportunity to explore the shipwreck which we love to do whenever we get the chance. In the photo to the left you can see tiny swimmers visible (for scale, the wreck is nearly 100m/300′ long). But at the end of the day, those three whales were all anybody was talking about on the way home.
And also this week, in an exciting break from the routine, Capt Gene did his presentation to the Bermuda Zoological Society and to an even wider online audience via Zoom on Tuesday evening, Feb 27. After a few technical worries (“hello… can you hear me, is this thing on..?” 😬), everything went very well! ( It was a challenge, though, because there is just so much great humpback info to share, how can you fit it all into just twenty short minutes? Quick answer: you can’t! So hard to choose…
Our guests here were an appreciative and supportive audience, complete with popcorn. And Capt Gene said he could see the names of many a reader of our Cruise Reports on the Zoom digital guest list as well. For those who could not make it, the meeting was recorded and we will be sharing the link with you just as soon as we get it. Gene hopes you enjoyed it sends his thanks to you, too, for your support! It was a lot of fun.
Here’s to next week being just as fun, too!
Thanks for reading!
Catsharks Cushenan & Capt Gene Flipse