Day 1: on the expedition: Whales

This morning we set off on the ship, National Geographic Explorer.   Before we left, we did "fire" drills and found about our life vests and safety protocol.  We also checked in to our Teacher cabins.   We have a porthole that easily shuts all the light out of the room.  This is good in the land of 24 hour sunshine.   After setting sail, we soon found fin and humpback whales feeding on the coast of Spitsbergen.

Fin whales we learned, are a type of Baleen whale (the kind of whale with string like hairy teeth that preys on krill) that are the 2nd largest mammals in the world behind the Blue whale.  They measure 89 feet in length and have 120,000 kg of mass.  That is a relatively large disturbance in the higgs field.

They will create bubble nets when they are feeding (which they were doing, since there were so many of them up here in this bay--along with other whales, seals and birds).   The bubble nets are created by the whale as it swims in a spiral or circle under water.  The cavitation creates bubbles that entice or corral prey.