As she slid alongside the boat she showed us her distinctive dorsal... it was Talon!! It was very exciting to see her with her first calf, for many reasons. First, Talon's lineage and life history were so well known since she had been seen as a calf in 1981 with her mother Sinestra. This helped comfirm that Humpback females are mature at around 7 years old, we also knew that Sinestra was a grandmother to this little one. On a more personal level many whale watch boats had been befriended by Talon when she was a calf and were very curious to see how her behavior would change with the responsibilities of motherhood.
We wondered if Talon would allow her calf to interact with whale watch boats. She had been quite a "cut up" as a "kid" and her mother Sinestra had been pretty tolerant. It was interesting to see that she, in turn, seemed to tolerate the antics of her calf.
