An unique afternoon with Mathilda, a Pilot whale, and her calf

Text: Brigitte Achatz, employee of firmm ; Fotos: firmm

We left Tarifa harbor with our boat, the firmm Spirit, on June 21st 2013, a sunny but for summertime still a bit chilly afternoon. The sea was very calm, guaranteeing a relaxing trip. Around 20 minutes after having left Tarifa, Katharina mentioned to have spotted a group of Pilot whales. After observing the group, Katharina grabbed the microphone again in order to happily inform us of another spotted group in which Mathilda, a young Pilot whale mother and her one-week-old baby, were swimming.

  

We were all very happy to see these two, as we had only observed the newborn about a week before, when it was only one or two days old. Today it didn’t appear to do too well as it was struggling to get to the surface to breath. Two adult Pilot whales then took it between them in order to help it reach the surface. But today it was different. The little baby whale was easily swimming alongside its mother. We were relieved to see the small one, as it was obviously swimming without any trouble and was regularly showing up on the surface. Our guests on board of the firmm Spirit were absolutely delighted on this observation. Very clear to see were the marks which are made through the contractions of the uterus through the birth process. Seeing them on the side of the baby whale’s body, one can tell that it is only a few days old.

  

Many times Mathilda came, together with her calf, very close to the boat. We all had the feeling that the young female pilot whale wanted to proudly show her offspring – we assumed it to be her first baby. As the whole pod was staying for a long time close to the boat, we had lots of time to observe the little newborn. It was quite unusual for them to come close again and again. They only drifted away from the boat to then immediately return, which of course filled us with great pleasure. They were diving beneath our boat, were swimming alongside it and were following us for quite a while - it seemed that they wanted to ensure that every passenger was able to get a nice look at the little one.

  

They came to the prow, then to the rear, afterwards again to both sides of the boat, and with this everybody had a great view of the whole pod. About five to six times the group swam away but came back immediately which delighted us. As we did not want to risk any injury of the whales when starting the boat’s engine, we had to stay there for quite a long time as the whales did not want to swim away from our boat. Finally about 6 whales gathered around the baby which was swimming around very playfully. Sometimes it even allowed us to see its belly when rolling around in the water.

  

Nachdem wir auch dieses Spektakel ausgiebig bewundert hatten und jeder Passagier ein Lächeln auf den Lippen hatte und ganz zufrieden die Fotos in seiner Kamera begutachtete (denn Fotomotive lieferte der kleine Grindwal wirklich mehr als genug), war es Zeit uns von den Walen zu verabschieden und nach Tarifa zurückzukehren. Wieder einmal hatten uns unsere Pilotwale einen beeindruckenden und unvergesslichen Nachmittag beschert und deutlich gezeigt, dass sie uns vetrauen und uns als ihre Freunde erkennen und sehen.