12 noon whale watching trip - Krill
We headed offshore with light winds out of the southwest. As we crossed over the western edge of Stellwagen Bank, we heard about a small cluster of whales on the mid part of the bank. As we moved into that area, we started to see seabirds in the area.
We had great looks at greater shearwaters and Northern gannets. Northern gannets are the largest of all the seabirds that feed in our waters, right alongside the large, baleen whales. They have a 6 foot wingspan and are quite impressive in their plumage and their feeding behavior.
As we continued to move over the bank, we picked up a finback whale that appeared to be feeding deep. Although finbacks are one of the fastest whales offshore, this animal was staying in the same general area as it was circling the bait. Even though we were missing all the great mouth-open lunging that was occurring at depth, we were able to get a lot of great looks at this animal as it surfaced close to the boat after each deep dive.
We moved on and picked up a pair of humpback whales that we also feeding in this area. We were able to identify both humpbacks and we were delighted to see Reflection and Lutris feeding together. Both Reflection and Lutris were lunging just beneath the water's surface and the lunges were quick and unpredictable.
This is not the type of feeding you typically see when humpbacks are feeding on small schooling fish. So we assumed that these animals were feeding on some type of large Euphausiid, like krill, that was a few feet beneath the surface.
As Reflection and Lutris surfaced all around the boat, we could see their ventral pleats fully expanded allowing the animals to take more food and water into the mouth and throat area. Then we watched how they would strain or push the water back out of the mouth leaving only the food behind. As the whale's fluked out, we could only imagine where they would surface next and were often delighted to see them very close to our boat.
Captain Russ did a fabulous job of anticipating where this pair would surface as they continued to feed all around the boat. At the end of our trip, this pair separated, reminding us that these types of associations in large, baleen whales are quite temporary.
Obviously, Reflection and Lutris had joined together to maximize their feeding activities. By working together, we assume that these two individuals benefitted by obtaining more plankton per lunge.
But in the life of a baleen whales, the only permanent association that exists is that of the mother and calf. Moms and their calves stay together for a year and mom takes full responsibility for raising and caring for her young. Reflection and Lutris are both adult animals. Reflection is a reproductively mature female who has had a number of calves over the years. Lutris was born in 2002 to a mother named Lava.
It is wonderful that we can identify humpback whales based on natural body markings and pigmentation patterns. No need for us to mark or tag individuals, since they come with their own personal or individualistic markings. By examining and photographing the dorsal fin and the ventral tail pattern, we can identify over 2,500 humpbacks in our Gulf of Maine population.
Not every animal is seen each season and unfortunately many have died from natural and man-made causes. But this population of humpback whales is one of the most well understood of any in the world.
We want to thank Captain John Boats for their help and support in collecting sighting data and photo-identificaiton information when offshore. This information is vital to our continued understanding of these very endangered marine mammals. Nice to know that when you join Captain John Boats offshore, you are supporting an industry, but you are also supporting research and conservation efforts in the New England area.
