Minke Whale

last week i went out on the boat with Ali Massey our marine assistant and one of the summer flight followers, Owen to carry out a CTD. With camera charged up we hoped to catch a glimpse of a Whale or two.


This is what krill looks like. These are a Whales main source of food and this year we have an unusal about of Krill in the waters around Rothera.


This is the Krill swimming just next to our boat. From the air you can see massive shoals.



So as we were sat there a Minke Whale was spotted in the distance. It headed towards us for a closer look but we got a little more than we bargained for. After spotting some air bubbles coming straight for the boat 10 m away we got the cameras ready!! The Minke Whale surfaced about 5 m from our little inflatable boat. This huge animal got a good look at us with it's big round eyes and we too got a close up view of it. The Whale then proceeded to circle the boat and appeared to be very curios until it swam off into the distance. Minke Whales can be found down here quite frequently this season and are probably the most common Whale in the Antarctic.
I did manage to film the whole experience but as yet i can't download the file but will endeavor to get it onto this site as soon as i can!