Fluke Sculptures
This Humpback is one of the most frequently observed whales in the feeding grounds of Juneau, well known as Flame or SEAK-1538 in the Southeast Alaska Humpback Whale Catalogue. She is resighted nearly every season.
Flame is celebrated as a mother, with recent offspring born in consecutive seasons. This productive female was seen with her first calf Spark in 2013. In following years were Ember in 2016, Bunsen in 2019, Smoke in 2020, Bolt in 2021, and most recently discovered is SEAK-2703 in 2022.
Flame was first documented in 2004 as part of a broad collaborative study known as SPLASH, which uses biopsies and sightings data to understand abundance, population structure, and potential human impacts across the North Pacific Ocean. Regions of study include Hawai’i, Mexico, Central America, Alaska, the Aleutian Islands, the Bering Sea, Russia, and Asian wintering waters.
R. JANES COLLECTION