9 am and 2 pm whale watches - Krill
9 am trip:
The morning trip started off a bit slow, but things really picked up as we headed a bit south of the southeast corner of Stellwagen Bank. Our first sighting was a pair of humpback whales that we were able to identify as Ampersand and Buckshot.
This pair were feeding together at the surface in a very coordinated manner. And as we watched them blow bubble nets and come up right in the middle with mouth's wide open, we realized that Buckshot had a satellite tag on its right flank, just below the dorsal fin.
The Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies (PCCS) has been conducting research on these new satellite tags for the past 2 to 3 weeks. Naturalists with Captain John Whale Watching and Fishing Tours are providing photographs of many of these tagged humpback whales seen offshore. By providing important sighting information and photographs, we are helping scientists better understand the impact of these tags on the health and well being of the humpback whale population in the Gulf of Maine.
As we watched Ampersand and Buckshot, a male whale named Coral moved into the area. Although Coral did not initially join Ampersand and Buckhoot, he did stay within our area for most of the trip.
Coral has a beautifully white ventral tail pattern with distinctive black rake marks. These parallel black lines are bite marks from killer whales. Not sure if the killer whales had intended to kill Coral or were just playing with him, but regardless, it is nice to know that Coral escaped these whale predators.
Towards the end of our trip, Coral, Ampersand, Buckshot and Ember all joined together to form a larger feeding team. It was amazing to see these animals working together for the benefit of all.
Also in our area were two finback whales that were associated and were feeding deep to the north of us. And we did see a handful of minke whales, the smallest baleen whales that feed off Cape Cod.
2 pm trip:
As we headed back offshore with our afternoon passengers, we passed quite a few flocks of shearwaters that were resting on the water's surface. The chocolate brown shearwaters are the sooty shearwaters and the birds with more white on them are greater shearwaters. What is quite amazing about these pelagic birds is that they take some of the longest migrations of any animal on the planet!
Our first sighting was a very special one. We came upon a very active whale that was small in size and that had a very black ventral tail pattern. As we got a better look at this individual, I realized that this was Pereid's calf from last year. Mothers and calves stay together for one year. After leaving the mother, the calves tend to return to the same feeding areas that mom introduced them their first year of life. This is fortunate for us for this behavior allows researches to follow individuals of known birth age over the course of their lifetime.
So it wasn't surprising to see Perseid's calf from last year back on Stellwagen Bank his or her second year of life. What was so special is the fact that as a calf, this individual was full of life! And this animal looked very lumpy and scarred all over its body. Getting a closer look at Perseid's 2010 calf now as it breached or jumped out of the water, allowed us to see that this animal was doing very well and growing in size as expected. But it still had all the lumps and bumps that it had as a calf. What a special whale who looked a bit odd on the outside, but was full of life on the inside.
As Perseid's 2011 calf rolled over lifting its tail repeatedly out of the water and then smashing it back onto the water's surface in a behavior called inverted lobtailing, I was able to get a photograph of the underside of the belly and identified this little whale as a girl! No wonder she has so much life in her for she is as beautiful and as full of life as her mom!
This little whale also has a very black ventral tail pattern, just like her mom. That usually isn't the case with humpback whales as mutliple genes interact to create the black and white pattern on the bottom of their tails. But mom and kid have more in common than most whales offshore.
As we watched Perseid's 2010 calf, a second humpback whale surfaced in our general vicinity. This whale rolled over on its side and started flipper slapping just off the port side of our vessel. We were able to identify this whale as Pivot and we were fascinated as we watched Pivot smash the water's surface with those 15 foot flippers.
As we held our position, a group of 5 humpback whales surfaced just off our stern. It was clear that these animals were feeding deep, but that gave us some good looks that the individuals right next to the boat. We were able to identify Liner's 08 calf and a whale named Stonewall. Stonewall has a very dark tail, but there are quite a few interesting white markings on both sides.
Our final sighting was a trio of humpback whales that included Alphorn, Jabiru and Pele. As these whales fluke out just off the starboard side of our boat, we realized that we were close to the end of our whale watch. But seeing these "old friends" reminded us of how special our humpback whales are. To be able to recognize individual humpback whales, many who have been born into the population, is just incredible. We are very fortunate to be able to follow some of these animals over the course of their lifetime. And we are very fortunate to be part of their lives.
Humpback whales seen today include: Perseid's 2010 calf, Pivot, Stonewall, Tapioca, Liner's 2008 calf, Jabiru, Grackle, Pele and Alphorn.
One of these whales was Rapier’s 2009 calf, who performed numerous chin breaches and spinning head breaches. We ended our day with another unidentified, breaching humpback whale. When you see a 30-40 ton whale completely clear the water in a breach, you get a sense of how enormous and powerful these animals are! We were so spoiled by these whales this afternoon and it was an fabulous trip. 
