Whale Watching Trips August 26, 2010

11:00 am Whale Watch Trip - Leah

After the past three rainy days, I could not wait to get back on the water today!!! And of all the days to come back to the water, I got to watch the Queen of the Sea, my second favorite whale, which I'll tell you who that is a little later in my entry.

It turned out to be a beautiful day out on the water. The group of whales we were watching today were a bit of a different crew then I was used to. We were welcomed to the bank area by a breacher which I could not identify and we had a lot of surface feeding behaviors as we approached.

There were a lot of bubble clouds that the whales were creating and then all of a sudden it was like dinner was over and the whales went back to just swimming out of and around the area. We had about 10-15 whales in the area, but the only ones I could identify were Salt, my second favorite, and her calf of this year, Zelle. We also had Ganesh (see photo below), and Wizard (see photo at top of posting), then a bunch of other whales that I haven't identified because they were staying rather low profile fluke-wise.

We also did have some minke whales, about 3-5, a couple finbacks and a small pod of dolphins in the area. There was also an unusual amount of balloons in the water today we did try to rescue one but unfortunately our efforts were

unsuccessful.

Whale Watching Trips August 20, 2010 Capt. Rudy

12:00 Whale Watch Trip - Tammy

This is an unusual posting as it was provided by Tammy when aboard the Capt. Rudy Thomas. The Capt. Rudy Thomas is the ferry boat from Plymouth to Provincetown. When she arrives in Provincetown, the Capt. Rudy Thomas will drop off the ferry passengers and pick up Provincetown folk for a whale watch. We normally don't post these whale watching trips, but Tammy wanted to send in this blog information for our general blog readers. Thanks Tammy!

Today we had a beautiful day offshore with lots of sun and little wind. As we came up on the east side of the Bank we saw some big splashes and at least 3 or 4 animals in the distance. These big splashes turned out to be a humpback calf breaching!

As we approached the area we realized that there were actually 8 whales in this large group, including two mother calf pairs. The calf that was breaching belongs to a whale named Cajun, who was in the large group. Cajun’s calf was very active all day and we were lucky to see some amazing acrobatic behavior such as spinning head breaches, chin breaches, lobtailing, rolling and flipper slapping.

Our other mother calf pair in the group was Perseid and calf. Perseid’s calf was spending a lot of time logging, a behavior where the whale rests at the surface. Quite often all 8 whales would go down on a dive and both calves would pop up first. At one point we had a calf on either side of our boat about 5 feet away from us! Cajun’s calf was once again putting on a show, rolling over on its back and going right under out boat.

Towards the end of our trip we had a very close approach by all 8 whales! As this large group of whales swam right by our boat we really got a sense of how impressive and majestic these animals are. The other adults in our group included Pele, Milkweed, Jabiru and Apex. Another fabulous whale watch this season!

Whale Watching Trips August 22, 2010

11 am Whale Watch - Krill

Southeast winds were increasing as we headed offshore to the east side of Stellwagen Bank. Our first sighting was a group of 6 humpbacks that included Cajun and her calf, Milkweed, Pele, Apex and Jabiru. The adults were feeding deep while Cajun's calf was being quite active at the surface.

This playful calf was breaching (jumping) out of the water repeatedly. At first the calf was spinning head breaching, but the calf threw in some tail breaches and chin breaches as well. We see a lot of active behaviors being exhibited from our calves each and every day. One reason that calves are so active is that they are just as playful and lively as the young of most other mammals. And the calves are still nursing from their mom's so they have unlimited access to their food supply. Unlimited access to an energy source means they can afford to be as active as they like. And as mom feeds deep beneath the water's surface, Cajun's calf continued to show us just as playful and exuberant young humpbacks can be.

As the adults came back to the surface to breath, Cajun's calf swam quickly over to its mother's side. As they dove, side-by-side, I was able to get a neat shot of both the calf's and the mother's ventral tail pattern. Although similar in the amount of white and black pigmentation, you can still see that there are differences between the patterns. No two humpbacks have the same tail pattern so biologists can use these unique patterns as a type of fingerprint that identifies one humpback from another.

In this same area, we saw two other groups of humpbacks that also appeared to be feeding deep. The first group was comprised of 4 humpback whales that included Canopy, Draco (see image above) and Citation. Citation has a calf this season, but we did not see the calf traveling near the mom. Not to worry though, since the calves are older now and do spend more time away from mom. But we will be looking the next time we see Citation to make sure that her calf is indeed with her.

The other grouping of humpbacks included Eruption, Blackhole and Bolide (see image above). Both Blackhole and Bolide have black tail patterns, but Bolide has a thin white line that extends down vertically on the left ventral fluke. Humpbacks with very white or very black tail patterns are the hardest to identify. But you can still figure out which individual you have if you examine other body features and pigmentation patterns including the dorsal fin (the fin on the back of the whale, and the trailing edge pattern of the fluke.

As we slowly moved out of the area and started heading back to Plymouth Harbor, we saw splashing a mile in front of us. We assumed we had another active humpback calf for the animal was small in size. However and to our utter delight, we realized that the animal breaching repeatedly out of the water was a minke whale.

All whales breach out of the water, but humpbacks breach more often than other whales. So to see a minke whale breach time and time again was fabulous not only for our passengers onboard, but also for the captain and crew. In over 30 years of working as a field biologist offshore on both the east and west coast of the United States, I myself have only seen breaching by a minke whale on a handful of occasions. And the looks we got today were the best ever!

This wonderful species of baleen whale is the species that is currently taking the brunt of commercial whaling conducted by Japan, Iceland and Norway. If only the governments of these countries would step back and contemplate their actions. Whales are not the property of any country and they deserve to live free in the world's oceans. And if it is all about money, which for these countries it is, then whales are worth more alive then dead.

Whale watching is one of the fastest growing eco-tourisms in the world. Not only is it a lucrative industry, but communities that offer whale watching from their shores, benefit as people flock into their areas. Whale Watchers spend money in local restaurants, hotels and other businesses. Millions of dollars of revenues come into these areas as a direct result of people who go whale watching.