August 21, 2012 Whale Watches

9 am and 2 pm Whale Watches - Tammy

9 am trip:


Both blogs written by NECWA intern Carly Hepburn. Thanks Carly!

We had an incredible whale watch this morning offshore on Stellwagen Bank.  We were able to see two different types of whales, the humpback and minke whale.  We had quick glimpses of some minke whales and some incredible views of humpback whales.  The humpback whales were feeding as well as displaying high activity surface behaviors.

We began our trip with a group of three associated humpback whales. In this group was a mother and calf pair.  We identified the mother and calf pair as Anchor and her calf.  Anchor’s calf rolled over and all three humpbacks fluked out when they went down for a dive.  Right before we left this group the mother and calf pair split from their “escort.”   In the area there was also a minke whale.

Our next sighting was of a mother and calf pair that were in the same area but not associated with one another.  The calf did over 25 spinning head breaches as well as tail breaches!  This behavior was great to see on our whale watch since this type of behavior is only seen on about 10% of trips!  We aren’t sure why whales will breach out of the water but some ideas are that it is for communication, trying to get parasites off their body, and/or play.  With young calves breaching often seems like play behavior. In the distance we also saw the calf’s mother who was displaying two types of feeding behaviors; kick feeding and bubble net feeding.  We believe this mother was a whale named Palette. After watching the calf breach over and over again she was joined by a humpback whale named Wizard for a few minutes.  Wizard is easily identified because of its mostly white fluke. 

In total, we had about 8-12 humpback whales in the area and interestingly, quite a few of them were displaying high activity surface behaviors.  We focused on one humpback whale named Putter who was inverted lobtailing, lobtailing, breaching, and flipper slapping.   In the distance we could also see the calf still spinning head breaching.  Near Putter was another humpback whale that was tail breaching and another humpback named Spirit that was also flippering!   Overall we had an amazing trip offshore and we had some incredible views of endangered humpback whales. Identified humpbacks include: Anchor and calf, Palette and calf, Peninsula, Wizard, Spirit and Putter. We also had sightings of several birds, including Wilson’s storm petrels and Cory’s Shearwaters and Greater shearwaters.  

2 pm trip:

We headed offshore towards Stellwagen Bank for another beautiful afternoon of whale watching.  We were able to see humpback whales, minke whales, a gray seal and even a jumping blue-fin tuna.

Our first sighting was a humpback whale who we identified as Manhattan. Manhattan was consistently traveling south and we saw some beautiful fluke out dives from this animal.    Also in that same area was another unidentified humpback whale that was logging and a minke whale. Logging is a resting behavior and it is called logging because the whale looks like a log floating on the surface of the water.  Since whales are voluntary breathers they cannot sleep like we understand it. Whales actually rest part of their brain at a time so that the other part of their brain is aware of when they must take a breath.  

After we left our second logging whale we got quick looks at another humpback whale named Cantilever before ending our trip with two separate sightings of mother and calf pairs. 
Our first pair was Palette and calf. We saw more of the calf at the surface, as Palette was on some deep dives. When Palette surfaced from one particular dive, her calf immediately displayed nursing behavior.  Soon Palette will begin teaching her calf to eat small fish in preparation for when the mother and calf separate.  A mother and calf pair is the only semi-permanent association with baleen whales such as humpbacks and they will stay together for about one year before separating.    

Our second mother and calf pair was Habenero and calf and both whales were raising flukes on dives.  We saw the calf at the surface a lot more than its mother and the calf was very playful blowing bubbles and spreading its flippers out to the side.  While in that area we also saw a gray seal who was resting just at the surface with only its head above the water.  

As we headed back towards Plymouth Beach we had our final sighting of the day a minke whale.  While offshore we saw a number of different sea birds such as the Greater, Sooty, Cory’s, and Manx Shearwaters, and Double-crested Cormorants.