H857

Breaches, pectoral blows and lobtailing – H857’s prowess has been unstoppable since its arrival in the Estuary this year! In addition to its repeated acrobatics, its exploratory side also surprised a few weeks ago: the humpback whale made a brief incursion into the Saguenay Fjord. Although surprising, this behavior is nothing new for H857. In 2022, the rorqual had travelled up the fjord as far as Anse à la Barque!

The first sighting of H857 dates back to summer 2017. Just a few months old, the humpback whale was swimming in the St. Lawrence Estuary with its mother Bad Chemistry (H753), who was also making her first foray into the area. While Bad Chemistry normally prefers the waters of the Gulf, H857 has been returning to the Estuary for six summers now. Could it be that his mother took him there when he was just a few months old? Who knows! Hypotheses suggest that a whale’s loyalty to a feeding site could be transmitted from mother to calf. However, these speculations have yet to be confirmed. Nevertheless, it’s interesting to see that H857’s fidelity differs from its mother’s!

H857 was just a few months old when it first visited the estuary in 2017. Its mother Bad Chemistry teaches it to become independent. She jumps, snaps her tail and pectorals, and H857 imitates her clumsily, then better and better. In 2018, no trace of either. The survival of a young humpback whale depends on its first year of life, when it must learn to navigate and feed on its own. Good news, then, to find it this year in the feeding grounds of its first migration with his mother. Will H857 become a regular at the Marine Park, while its mother usually prefers the Gulf?