Solomons Island, MD – David Lehan captured this cell phone video of a 35-40 foot humpback whale breaching, twice in this video, in about 80 feet of water, roughly 4.5 miles from Solomons, MD. David, a former Charter Boat captain himself, was working with Capt. Brian Elder and Capt. Richie Roberts aboard the Marcy Lynn.
It started out as a normal rainy and choppy afternoon Spring day on the Chesapeake Bay. Capt. Brian Elder, with a fishing party of 7 on board, was trolling for rockfish (striped bass) and scanning the horizon for signs of baitfish when he noticed a disturbance in the distance. Capt. Elder, with a background in wildlife management and having worked at the University of Maryland’s Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, in Solomons, for many years, was certain it was caused by some type of marine mammal. Once the whale started a series of breaches it became clear that everyone on board the Marcy Lynn was witnessing a rare whale sighting in the Chesapeake Bay.
At one point, the whale breached itself within 150 feet of the Marcy Lynn giving its passengers quite a show with roughly a dozen breaches in all. David Lehan, operating as First Mate for this trip, managed to grab his cell phone and capture two of the whale’s breaches on video. Other attempts for cell phone footage were marred by the wet weather. Even Capt. Elder’s cell phone screen went blank because it had gotten wet.
Here is the video shot by David Lehan of Lusby, MD.
WARNING: THE VIDEO CONTAINS SOME INAPPROPRIATE LANGUAGE.