9 am Trip:
We traveled across Stellwagen Bank to the Northwest corner,
our location for the last week or so.
We started our trip with a pair of adult humpback whales--Echo and
Tectonic. This pair had been in
association (traveling together) for the last 24 hrs at minimum as they were
seen together the day prior.
Tectonic is one of 25 humpbacks to have a satellite tag placed in it as
part of a joint project being conducted over three years. Satellite-monitored
radio tags have yielded important information for the conservation and management
of large whales and provide far greater detail on large whale movements and
habitat use than more traditional studies, and past tagging projects have
revealed the existence of entirely unknown whale habitats. As such, tagging
represents an important tool for the conservation of whales. However, it is not
uncommon for tags to stop transmitting within days to months of deployment, and
follow-up studies on the individuals have been limited.
Not far from the pair, we came across a mom and calf and
were very excited to see it was Pinball and her calf. Pinball was first
documented with this calf in February off Silver Bank in the Caribbean. And she’s successfully migrated to the Gulf of Maine with her new
calf. Thanks to modern technology,
we were able to quickly tell researchers from the Silver Bank we were watching her! We slowly started to leave the pair
when they both breached—jumping right out of the water!
We continued to another association of whales, which
included Sloop and calf traveling with an escort. Humpbacks are quite social
and often form associations of pairs, trios or even larger groups traveling
together for minutes, hours or on rarer occasions days or weeks. Before heading back towards Plymouth,
we got a quick look at Columbia (also satellite tagged this year) and a
beautiful look at a finback whale.
Minkes were seen throughout the trip.
2 pm Trip:
For the afternoon, we headed straight for the northwest
corner, where we watched whales in the morning. We came across an associated pair, Echo and Tectonic. This pair was together in the morning
as well. Echo
was first seen in 1988. Although
we don’t know her predecessors, molecular genetics tell us that she is
descended from the same distant ancestors as other well-known matriarchs like
Cardhu and Trident. Echo gets her
name from a series of short parallel lines on her left fluke that look like the
pattern of sounds produced during echolocation. She was seen with her first calf, Monogram, soon after its
birth on Silver Bank during the Years of the North Atlantic Humpback Whale (YONAH) project. The pair were later re-sighted in the
Gulf of Maine, marking the successful first migration of the calf. Unfortunately, Monogram has not been
re-sighted since the calf year.
Echo’s second calf, Beacon, is also known to have died in December 2004,
from unknown causes. Beacon died
before she could produce any offspring of her own. Without other female offspring, Echo’s family line can only
grow very slowly. She had calves
in 2008 and 2010 and could be pregnant this summer and perhaps will bring us
another calf in 2013.
Not far from the pair, we came across a mom/calf pair--Dome and
calf. On June 22, Dome was seen
entangled in fishing gear and the rescue team responded, but was not able to
cut her completely free. Thankfully, she was sighted several times over the
course of the next few weeks and confirmed gear free on July 27. As we watched the pair, we got to see
the calf surfing through our wake as we circled back around.
We continued west and came across Pinball and calf, with Bolide
nearby and trying to associated. The whales were very active as a result, with
lots of fast movements and trumpets. Pinball did not seem to be accepting
Bolide’s attempts to associated and eventually, Bolide continued on its own.
We had one more humpback come through, although we weren’t able to
identify it. We saw a finback on our way home, as well as many minkes throughout
our trip. Another wonderful day on the water!
