After watching these bears we continued toward the far shore where we could to see multiple beluga whales. The beluga (Dephinapterus leucas) is readily identified because of its white color and absence of a dorsal fin. Belugas can grow to 18 feet long and weigh 3500 pounds. Their blows were small. Notice how close we are to the shore.
This mother whale has a calf with her. Beluga calves are born grey and lose their pigmentation by 7-9 years.
The beluga whales have a promontory at the front of the head which houses an echolocation organ called the melon. Their lateral fins are characteristically squared off.
Several times the belugas swam right at our Zodiac veering off just before collision. The melon (below) on the front of the skull is a mass of adipose or fatty tissue in the forehead of beluga and other toothed whales.
It focuses and modulates the whales vocalizations and acts as a sound lens. With the melon belugas use a form of bio sonar to send out calls as sound and listen to the echoes of those calls that return from objects near them.
They use these echoes to locate and identify objects for navigation and foraging.
Belugas seasonally shed their skin. Ordinarily in the winter the skin thickens and turns yellow on the back and fins. During the summer they rub themselves on shallow gravel to remove the epidermis. On this day groups of belugas appeared to scratch themselves on a shallow bay ledge.
Returning to the ship after this extraordinary show this curious bearded seal swam close.
We all felt that at this moment in time we were where we were meant to be.
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