This has been an incredible year for sightings in the bay around the Deer Island archipelago, and we have seen many right whales (the one shown was off Campobello – photo taken by Michael Owen), humpbacks, finbacks, minkes and the occasional basking shark and tuna. – Mike Strong, L’Etete The photo shows a great view of the callosities on the head of a right whale. The pattern of callosities on each individual right whale is unique (the pattern of callosities on the model of the right whale that hangs in the New Brunswick Museum is based on a specific whale, Delilah) and has allowed researchers to identify and track individual whales as well as estimate population size for this species. The light colouration is actually concentrations of whale lice (a crustacean not closely related to the head lice, which are insects) that live on the surface of the whale and feed on sloughed skin. Note that the topmost callosities are brownish as they lack any whale lice concentrations. – Don McAlpine