This morning was an extremely special morning for me. Back in 2001 I went on my first whale watch and met my first whale ever. She was a Humpback Whale named NA-8090 “Pinball”. I’ve been fortunate enough to see her many times since that first sighting, but I’d never been lucky enough to see her do anything surface active. Which in reality is fine. Just knowing she’s safe and doing well is enough. Well… yesterday changed all of that! We were watching her along with her calf when all of a sudden her calf launched himself clear out of the water. It was so unexpected that I missed that first breach, but thankfully it got my attention in the right spot because Pinball herself breached just moments later. I’ve seen many whales breach in my 19 years of whale watching, but some – like this one, are extra special. 
-Mandy
I just went on my first whale watch two days ago. And the only whale we met (and therefore my first) was Pinball. Our naturalist described her in such a funny way. Very much a loner and always found eating. She said she’s super fat right now, so she might be pregnant or she might just be a chunker. (She didn’t actually use the word chunker). It was pretty cool because she swam underneath our boat. So we got super close to her.
that sounds like an amazing encounter! thank you for sharing it with us 🙂 Let’s hope she’s pregnant!!
We just saw Pinball this morning on a watch off of Cape Ann, Massachusetts. She didn’t breach, but her beautiful newly born calf breached twice. She must be good at teaching her calves to breach!
Amazing! That sounds like a fantastic encouter!