Whale Watching Trips September 2, 2009

9 am Whale Watch Trip - Krill

For our morning trip, we had a number of whale sightings close to the SW corner. Our first sighting was a small humpback who was logging (resting) at the surface. This animal might have been Trident's 08 calf, but we are still waiting for a confirmation. After leaving this animal, we continued heading east and picked up 3 young humpbacks who were also logging at the surface.  

This trio became very interested in the boat and gave us a wonderful close approach for over 30 minutes. At times, all three whales were under the boat or very close to it. And given the calm seas and excellent water visibility, you could see the whale's entire body which was tremendous in size compared to our vessel. Moments like this make you realize just how special these animals are and therefore, just how important it is to protect their ocean realm.

After that experience, we knew this sighting was going to be hard to beat. With a little time remaining, we headed closer to the beaches of Race Point and just off the beach, picked up 5 finbacks, 1 minke and 1 juvenile humpback. Watching these animals so close to the beaches of Race Point was a wonderful way to end the morning trip.  

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For the 2 pm trip,we headed to the triangle (east of the bank). Here we found quite a few humpbacks who appeared to be sub-surface feeding. All groups were charging around in this area and coming up to the surface in a very forceful and explosive manner. We had groups of 1, 2, 3 and 5 all charging around the boat. 

We also had quite a few animals that were very active, though most were in the distance. We were able to get great looks at a small humpback who was lobtailing and breaching. At one point, this animal tailbreached right next to the boat. I think some of our passengers got wet from that experience. In this area, we were able to ID Draco, Hancock and Canopy.

Some seabirds including Cory's, greaters, WIlson's and a few juvenile gannets.

Whale Watching Trips August 31, 2009

9 am and 2 pm Whale Watch Trips - Leah

Today's trips were quite nice, the seas were still a little choppy around 2-4 foot, we had a pretty steady wind and a bit of clouds in the area. Both trips we had about 8-10 humpback whales, and at least 1 minke and 1 finback. We were graced by Niles' presence for both trips and her calf was with her along with the juvenile escort. 

The whales we saw today all started out low profile only staying at the surface for a few seconds then diving down for a while. Then once they realized we weren't going to leave without a show, they became more active showing us breaching behaviors of all kinds and flipper slapping. Also during the second trip Nile did some inverted lob tailing (see photo above), where she rolls on her back and slaps her tail on the surface of the water. 

There was also a lot of tail breaching and a lot of lazy flukers, where they'd get us all ready to take a photo of the fluke but then wouldn't lift it out of the water. Which made it very hard to identify the other individual whales that we had in the area. But todays trips were very nice.

11 am Whale Watch - Lauren

We had fairly clear skies, with a NE wind that was 5-10 mph, and seas that were about 2ft. The whales were being very elusive and shy today. Every time we would see a blow and head over to it, they were gone by the time we got there. They were spending a great deal of time down subsurface feeding, and they must have been actively chasing bait in all directions because they would surface quite some distance away, a mile or so away from us, and in the complete opposite direction! We got our 1st decent look at a minke whale that was fairly close to the boat, but behaving like a typically bashful minke he was only up for a few short breaths and then gone. 

We then came across Nile and her 2009 calf. The pair was also doing some deep feeding and then coming to the surface and logging for a bit. They gave a gorgeous close approach to the boat as they gently glided right under our boat and then came up on the other side, giving our passengers a superb view at just how large these mammals are. For our last look at this mom and calf pair, we were treated to a double fluke out by both Nile and her calf (see image above). A happy ending for all. 

Whale Watching Trip August 30, 2009

2 pm Whale Watch Trip - Leah

Our 9 am and 11 am whale watching trips were canceled this morning as the seas from Tropical Depression Danny were still a bit too high for our voyage offshore. For our 2 pm whale watch, we had a bit of a roller coaster ride offshore. It was decently clear while we were traveling out, but it was cloudy and we did have 6-8 foot seas.  It was fun to be on the water, but it was hard to keep your footing on the boat.

On today's trip we had about 10-15 humpbacks and we started with Nile (see fluke image above) and her calf in association with a juvenile whale. These three were displaying all kinds of high activity behaviors, including breaching and rolling and then of course, they would log to rest for a little while. Nile's calf would occasionally go into a head stand and then push its tail and body up out of the water, not quite sure what kind of a behavior was being displayed but it was neat.  

We had breaching from a lot of the whales in the area where we were today, but the breaching was really the only behavior that was being shown "correctly," or at least to its fullest potential. The other behaviors the whales were showing were sort of half-hearted behaviors. The whales didn't want to be flashy they just wanted to tease us. 

We finished our day with Anvil and her calf and another escort, and unfortunately Anvil still has some fishing line and hook attached just in front of her blow hole (see image above). I will be sending an update on Anvil to the disentanglement team at the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies to keep them abreast of her condition. This team has observed Anvil and have determine that the situation is not life threatening. But the Center is asking all researchers to send them updates when Anvil is sighting. 

Anvil, calf and companion were having a blast giving us great close approaches and not really allowing us to leave. They would swim up close to the boat and then dive under the boat or swim in a circle and come right back up. I had to keep hiding my camera in order to keep it from getting covered with whale breath. 

We did also have a bunch of Wilson's Storm Petrels, and a Parasitic Jaeger that was tormenting an Arctic tern so much that it took refuge on our boat for a little while.