Polywog 🏳️🌈
(she/her)@Polywog@lgbtqia.space
When I was on vacation a couple of weeks ago I went on one of those slightly-overpriced whale watching boats, because I don't live near an ocean and had never seen whales in the wild before. One of the encounters during the trip was with a juvenile humpback whale that the naturalist on board the boat with us was unable to find in the whale database they use (which I understand to be fairly locally-focused, rather than spanning global sightings). I got some photos of the fluke, though, and upon getting back home I submitted them to an international whale tracking website, because I was curious. Heard back today that not only is this whale known and named, but there's a whole family line known and tracked up in Alaska, and they (this specific juvenile's sex is unknown) have at least 8 known siblings, as well as a known matriline going back multiple generations! This specific individual is 5 years old (so, tweenaged in whale terms), and has been sighted in both Alaska and Hawaii.... and now in B.C., by me! SEAK-1538 Smoke (calf of Flame). Mama has even been tagged and had blood samples taken by researchers up in Alaska, so this is a well-known family!