WALLOPING DA WATER, 2/9/10

                                          WALLOPING DA WATER, 2/9/10

Last night as I was returning to the living room Myrna said,”It sounds like fireworks outside.  Go out and see what it is.”

I dutifully went out on the porch and sure enough, in between the sporadic car traffic on the highway, I heard large slow but rhythmic “soft” explosions in the direction of the ocean.   It was a calm sea and windless evening so it seemed possible that someone was firing a shotgun out of direct line of sight near the shoreline.  Myrna came out and we both stood still and cupped our hands behind our ears and were able to pinpoint the sounds more accurately.  Those wamping noises were in fact coming from just off shore and that could only mean one source…whales.   With that in mind it was clear to me that we were hearing a pectoral fin slapping contest.  To confirm that we went to:

 http://www.consciousbreathadventures.com/video/pectoral-fin-slapping.html

and listened to the clip attached.  If you subtract the boat, people and water noises what you have left is what we heard for 10 or 15 minutes.