Whale Watching Trips August 11, 2009

9 am Whale Watch Trip - Sue

Yesterday, on our whale watch aboard Capt. John Boats, Captain Jonny Dennen noticed a whale that did not look quite right and went out of his way to check it out. We were only 6 miles off Plymouth - still very far west of where we typically see whales and the whale turned out to be an entangled minke whale.  

We were able to contact the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies who said they would be mounting a response and hoped we might be able to stay with the whale for as long as possible.Now on a good day minke whales are elusive and boat shy, but a minke this sick could easily be lost. But we stayed with this minke for 30 minutes, it took a dive and was barely visible when it resurfaced 20 minutes later for a breath. Typically when an entangled whale is found the whale watching boats will all take turns standing by it until the disentanglement team can mount a response and get on scene. Handing of entangled whales from one whale watch boat to another is the only way the stand by process can work and it usually does work well. Unfortunately, yesterday we were about 15 miles from all the other whale watching boats so there was no help available and we had to leave this whale after 30 minutes.

The Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies did mount a fast response, but they were unsuccessful in relocating this minke. All day the Captain John Boats, both whale watching and fishing, kept a keen look out for this whale while heading into and out of Plymouth - but we never found it again. However, there is hope that we will relocate this minke whale due to the presence, dedication, and united effort of the whale watching industry. Everyone will be keeping an eye out for this whale in the future, we hope to find it and be able to get it free of gear in time.

11 am Whale Watch Trip - Leah

Todays trip went pretty nicely, the wind picked up just enough to keep the humidity and haze to a minimum.  The weather was perfect for being able to see possible areas where whales could be but we didn't have a spout in sight.  We traveled all around the southwest corner of Stellwagen Bank and finally found a lone humpback whale. This humpback is still yet to be identified but this whale was great for it gave us a wonderful close approach. 

The whale would surface right next to the boat, it's spout reaching all the way to the top deck. Then it would dive under the boat and surface again on the other side. We also had a minke in the same area and it was moving rather slowly which is kind of unusual for that species. We had heard about an entangled minke whale in the area but we never saw it and I'm curious to learn if the slow animal we saw was the known entangled whale. Hopefully that little guy is OK.

Whale Watching Trip August 10, 2009

9 am and 2 pm Whale Watch Trips - Krill

11 am Whale Watch Trip - Lauren

We had a beautiful day offshore with decreasing winds and a sea surface that can only be described as catspaws. As the trip continued, the sea surface became almost as smooth as glass.

We headed to the southwest corner of Stellwagen Bank and picked up our first sighting that turned out to be a single humpback traveling through the area. We were not able to ID this animals since it was up for only a few breaths and then would dive without raising its flukes above the water's surface. 

Our captain decided to leave this single whale and head over to a pair of humpbacks that turned out to be Nile and her calf of this year (see image above). This pair was up to their usual shananagans! This time mom was tail breaching like crazy! Then the two began to roll, flipper slap, and then tail slap. We were very close to all the activity as other vessels started coming into the area. As we continued to watch this pair, both Nile and the calf appeared to tire so settled down and started slowly traveling to the north. At times, they slowed down to the point where they were floating motionless at the surface, a behavior we call logging (resting). 

While we watched Nile and calf logging next to the boat, we got a quick glimpse at a minke whale and another single humpback. A very exciting day!