Your Antarctica cruise may be enhanced by the presence of several species of whales along your route.  Watching for whales at sea demands concentration and patience—you need to spend time on deck as many of the sightings are fleeting.  Once in the Antarctic Peninsula region, you may be fortunate enough to have them approach your ship or Zodiac.  The more common species that you are likely to see are also the easiest to identify.

The humpback, minke and fin whales belong to a group of whales known as baleen whales.  They have two blowholes on the top of their head—as opposed to one blowhole on the toothed whales.  This family also includes the blue whale, Bryde’s whale and sei whale.  They have three characteristics in common:  dorsal fins on their backs, ventral pleats running from the tip of the lower jaw back to the belly area, and baleen for feeding.  Baleen is a series of fringed overlapping plates hanging from each side of the upper jaw, where teeth might otherwise be located.  These plates consist of a fingernail-like material called keratin that frays out into fine hairs on the ends inside the mouth near the tongue.  After the whale takes in a large amount of water and closes its mouth, the baleen is used like a strainer to trap the krill, fish and other organisms while the water is forced out. Read the rest of this entry »