Whale Watching Trip September 30, 2010

Whale Watching Trip September 30, 2010---Joanne

We left Plymouth Harbor with mostly cloudy skies and increasing winds. With two low pressure systems and a tropical system moving up the east coast, we were anticipating building seas offshore.

We headed across the bay to just off Provincetown, where we found a reprieve from the growing seas. Whales were still spread between Race Point and Peaked Hill, with a dozen humpbacks or more in the area.

We once again, had quite a few juveniles, along with Trench & Ventisca, Salt, and Circuit and her calf. Once again, Salt's calf, Zelle, was not traveling immediately near her and wasn't seen during out trip. The group of 4 humpbacks seen the day prior, were still traveling in association with one another.

With the increasing winds and growing seas, we had some aerial displays, including tail breaches, full breaches, and a lob tail. With growing seas and the tropical system moving in over night, our first trip in October has been cancelled for Friday.

Whale Watching Trip September 29, 2010

Whale Watch Trip September 29, 2010----Joanne

We left Plymouth Harbor with unseasonably warm weather, clear skies, light winds, and calm seas. The seas were a special treat compared to the larger seas of recent days.

We traveled to the backside of Cape Cod, just off Provincetown. We had 15-20 humpback whales spread between Race Point Lighthouse and the Peaked Hill Bars.

Many of the whales in the area were juveniles, only 2-3 year olds. Whales were scattered traveling solo, with a few pairs and one group of 4 whales traveling together. Most whales were on dives that lasted 5-6 minutes and were relatively low profile.

The association of 4 spent a bit more time at the surface, as did Salt. She was traveling sans Zelle, who was likely not far, but never actually seen in the area while we were there.

Humpback Whales identified, included: Salt, Trench, Vulture's 08 Calf, Drip's 08 Calf, Rapier's 09 calf, and Algebra.

Whale Watching Trip September 25, 2010

September 25, 2010 Whale Watch - Tammy

What a beautiful September day for a whale watch! We had an unusually warm day with temperatures in the 80’s and it was also quite windy with 15-20 knot winds. Today we headed to Race Point where a couple of humpback whales were hanging out quite close to the beach. These two unidentified juvenile whales were both resting, or logging and eventually ended up right under our bow! Everyone got a very good look at these animals during this close approach.

As we continued travelling we had quick looks at three other humpbacks who were all lazily travelling through the area alone, but not spending much time at the surface. We then picked up another pair of humpback whales. These whales also seemed to be just passing through the area and we travelled right alongside these two animals for the remainder of our trip. All together we had a total of seven Humpback whales.

Rappin for Raptors Festival - September 25

Rappin for Raptors Festival at the Boston Nature Center - Krill

Today, Captain John Boats was one of the exhibitors at the Rappin for Raptors festival held at the Boston Nature Center in Mattapan, MA. This annual festival is sponsored by the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Even though the festival name highlights raptors, there were lots of other topics and activities focusing on other local animals, including reptiles, insects, whales and sharks. And there was a fabulous steel band by local kids in the area. They sounded fabulous!

Krill set up an educational display along with free educational literature and a number of hands-on activities. With the help of Mary Nash and Shaya French , both volunteers from the New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance, Captain John's tables was one of the busies in the festival.

There were lots of neat whale and shark artifacts on display for kids and adults to look at and learn about. A few of the items on display included baleen from a humpback whale, teeth from a sperm whale and a Mako shark jaw. The hit of the show were the shark jaws as kids couldn't believe how many extra teeth were hidden inside the jaw.

Captain John provided 3 hands-on activities for kids of all ages. For the youngest children, a shark tooth dig was provided. Here children could dig through a large tray full of sand, shells, sea glass in order to find fossil shark teeth. We would like to thank Frank Roberts for the shark teeth donation. This donation allowed each child to walk away with one shark tooth and a few shells.

A second activity was the blubber glove. Here kids learn about the benefits of whale blubber and how it insulates these large mammals in a very cold environment. Children are asked to put their hand in cold, icy water using a sealed glove. First they use a glove that has vegetable shortening inside. The vegetable shortening is used to simulate whale blubbler. Then they are asked to use a glove without any shortening inside. The kids are amazed to see how blubber really makes a difference in helping keep you warm from the icy waters.

A third learning activity involved a filtering activity where children use whale model on brushes and simulate the feeding movements of whales in our waters. First they filter in a tray that represents a "clean" ocean where on plankton (aka parsley) is floating in it. Then they try to filter their food (aka parsely) through a "dirty" ocean, an ocean full of marine debris like balloons, plastics and abandoned or lost fishing nets. These children learn that it is not easy, if not impossible, to not get marine debris in your mouth when feeding.

Just looking at the pictures that I took, it is clear that everyone had a fabulous time. Our hats are off to the staff and volunteers of the Boston Nature Center for putting on such a wonderful festival. And we thank them for inviting Captain John Whale Watching and Fishing Tours along with the New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance to be part of this wonderful event.

See you next fall!