The Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center runs a Rudee Flipper cruise boat tour off the coast of Virginia beach. Those on board get to see giant humpback whales gliding along the Atlantic ocean.
However though they don’t guarantee that you will see a whale, this past January the sightings were 100 percent and averages 82 percent over the past two years. So I think if you go you will definitely get to see one!
Fee: $30 adults (12 years and up) and $25 children, (4 - 11 years old)
Duration: 2 - 2.5 hours
From: January 4 - March 18, 2007
When: Thurs & Fri at 2:30 p.m.
Saturdays, Sundays & Holiday Mondays at 9 a.m., 12 noon & 3 p.m.
The Humpback Whale, Megaptera novaeangliae, is a mammal which belongs to the baleen whale suborder. The species feeds only in summer and lives off fat reserves during winter. Its most inventive feeding technique is called bubble net fishing.
A group of whales will blow bubbles while swimming to create a visual barrier against fish, while one or more whales in the group make vocalizations that drive the fish against the wall. The bubble wall is then closed, encircling the fish, which are confined in an ever-tighter area.
The whales then suddenly swim upwards and through the bubble net, mouths agape, swallowing thousands of fish in one gulp. This technique can involve a ring of bubbles up to 30 m (100 ft) in diameter and the cooperation of a dozen animals at once. It is one of the more spectacular acts of collaboration and cooperation among marine mammals.
Those on board the Rudee Flipper did get a great view. A whale exhaled a rush of misty breath. A long ridge of blubbery black back rose above the water, rolled forward until a little knoblike point of it touched the water and disappeared.
A crowd of gulls darted down to the water to grab some of the bait fish brought up by the feeding whale, a juvenile humpback that lingered in the area enjoying the fish while adult whales migrated down to the warmer waters of the Caribbean to spend the winter mating.
Source: CNN
