12 noon Whale Watch - Krill
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| Ventisca surfacing just off Race Point Beach. |
It was a bit of a cooler day offshore as we headed to the shores of Race Point and Head of the Meadow. One of our passengers was quite creative in finding a way to stay warm as she encased herself in her sweatshirt. Just wish she had her hands free to hang on to the rail!
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| Bundling up! |
As we moved along the backside of the Cape, we got some really close views of Race Point beach and the RVs that camp on this stretch of shoreline. The Cape Cod National Seashore manages and protects this area and does a wonderful job of maintaining these wild areas for everyone's use.
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| Ventisca and Music swimming side-by-side. |
Our first sighting was a trio of humpback whales that included Ventisca and Music. Unusual to see three humpbacks traveling together since baleen whales are quite solitary. But these types of temporary associations are quite interesting to examine and we are still learning so much about the life history and behavior of these endangered animals.
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| Left dorsal fin of Music. |
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| Left dorsal fin of Ventisca. |
Both Ventisca and Music have very distinctive dorsal fins that allow us to easily identify them as individuals. Ventisca has a great deal of white pigmentation not only on her dorsal fin, but also on her tail stock and flukes. Musica has some white on her dorsal and has a gouge just after of her dorsal fin. This could have been caused by a collision with a boat, possibly the bow of a small vessel.
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| Dorsal fluke of Ventisca as she prepares to fluke out. |
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| Ventisca and Music surfacing together. |
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| Ventisca and Music. |
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| Ventisca and the unknown humpback whale. |
Ventisca has a satellite tag on her left flank as she was tagged this summer by researchers at the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies. The information obtained from the tag will help scientists better understand the movements of humpback whales in the waters of the Gulf of Maine during the summer and fall.
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| Red arrow showing placement of satellite tag. |
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| Close-up of satellite tag on Ventisca. |
Our next sighting was a pair of humpback whales that were traveling slowly to the southeast. We were able to identify only one individual in this group and this was a whale named Circuit. is a mature female first seen in 1999. Since that time, she has come back to our New England waters with two calves. This year however, she is on her own feeding offshore.
Our last sighting was another trio of humpback whales that included Ledge, Reflection and another whale we have not been able to identify so far. This small group appeared to be feeding deep as the whales were staying down for long periods of time, but when surfacing, never really moving out of the area.
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| Ventral tail pattern of Ledge. |
Soon it was time for us to head home. On our way past Race Point, I took this photograph of Race Point Lighthouse and darkening clouds looming overhead. How beautiful as the clouds seemed to tower over Race Point.
Humpback whales we were able to identify include: Ventisca, Music, Circuit, Relfection and Ledge. We also had great looks at Northern gannets, manx shearwaters and Cory's shearwaters.
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| Cory's shearwaters rafting at the surface. |
