{"id":2619,"date":"2011-02-06T18:08:20","date_gmt":"2011-02-06T06:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auip.wordpress.com\/?p=556"},"modified":"2011-02-06T18:08:20","modified_gmt":"2011-02-06T06:08:20","slug":"field-notes-humpback-whales-amaze-student-in-antarctica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/field-notes-humpback-whales-amaze-student-in-antarctica\/","title":{"rendered":"Field Notes: Humpback whales amaze student in Antarctica"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/auip.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/02\/humpback-whale-amanda-wilson.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-557\" title=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/auip.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/02\/humpback-whale-amanda-wilson.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a>Antarctica truly is a dramatic and pristine environment unlike any other landscape on earth. I spent days sailing in open ocean before discovering land like an early explorer. I heard gentoo penguins as they inspected my campsite and massive whales as they surfaced alongside my zodiac. I <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lonelyplanet.com\/thorntree\/thread.jspa?threadID=1517193\">enjoyed the Drake Lake and survived the Drake Shake<\/a>. Each daily expedition provided a uniquely Antarctic experience; however, glimpsing into the life of a humpback whale was the most rewarding experience.<\/p>\n<p>On Christmas Eve we boarded our zodiacs in the glassy waters of Wilhelmina Bay. What began as a search for a single humpback whale and her calf concluded with a performance of nearly 30 whales.<\/p>\n<p>Whales seemed to continuously surface with loud \u201cpffts\u201d around every angle. One whale surfaced two feet from the zodiac giving off a deep rumbling sound louder and more dynamic than a tuba. Another used the boat as half of her bubble net to herd fish into her mouth. The expedition concluded with a humpback crashing into the water after breaching just a few yards from the raft. For the first time, during this rich interaction with the whales, I felt like a part of the world\u2019s ecosystem rather than the<br \/>\ncontrolling influence.<\/p>\n<p>Text and photo by Amanda Wilson, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hokiesabroad.org\">Virginia Tech<\/a> student on the 2010\/2011 <a href=\"http:\/\/auip.com\/programs\/antarctica.php\">Antarctica program<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Antarctica truly is a dramatic and pristine environment unlike any other landscape on earth. I spent days sailing in open ocean before discovering land like an early explorer. I heard gentoo penguins as they inspected my campsite and massive whales as they surfaced alongside my zodiac. I enjoyed the Drake Lake and survived the Drake Shake. Each daily expedition provided&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,19,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-antarctica","category-field-notes","category-student-perspective"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2619\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}