12 noon whale watch - Krill You don't get too many September days like this offshore. Relatively light winds out of the northwest producing rather calm seas offshore. We were treated to clear skies and good visibility as we headed across Stellwagen Bank and the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary.
As we continued our journey east, our captain, Capt. Russ, spotted an ocean sunfish on the surface. Ocean sunfish are the heaviest bony fish in the world and they prefer warmer, more tropical waters. But many young animals are enticed to our more northern, colder waters to feed on our abundant jellyfish, ctenophores (comb jellies) and other gelatinous critters. What a treat to see this very unusual looking fish right next to the boat.
We kept moving east and picked up a small cluster of large baleen whales. We had at least 3 finback whales feeding on their on in this area and all of the feeding was deep. We also had two humpback whales that spent much of their time logging (resting) side-by-side. We were able to identify one humpback in this pair by observing its ventral tail pattern. This was Nazca and we have been seeing this individual over the past week or two.
Nazca's companion had a much white ventral tail pattern, but we were not able to identify this individual. However, we will be sending these photos to the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies as I share all the data I collect aboard Captain John Boats with this organization. By working together and compiling our sighting data collected during our whale watching trips offshore, we hope to help scientists better understand the biology and life history of these amazing animals.
As we held position for Nazca and friend, a large finback whale surfaced right off our starboard bow. Our passengers were treated to a fabulous look at this animal who must have been over 70 feet long. Finbacks are the second largest of all the baleen whales and adults can reach lengths of over 80 feet.
Typically finbacks do not lift their flukes out of the water as they prepare to dive. And although this animal was no exception, it was still an impressive sight to see this whale arch its back and slip silently beneath the waters surface.
As we headed home, once again the sharp eyes of our captain picked up another ocean sunfish. This fish was a bit larger than the first and came right over to the boat, giving our passengers a close-up view of this odd looking individual.
The fish floated more than swam right under the boat and we waited for a good 5 minutes for the animal to pop-up on the other side. But it never did so we assumed it had moved off. We slowly moved out of the area and then picked up our speed for home.
Jessica, our NECWA intern onboard the boat today, took some video of this second sunfish with her phone camera. What a great video! And we also wanted to include shots of some of our crew onboard today.
What a great team! They rock!
