September 28, 2012 Whale Watch

12 noon Whale Watch - Krill 

We headed offshore to Race Point and the backside of the Cape for this is where we have had great sightings over the past few weeks.  As we approached the tip of the Cape, we saw a dorsal fin skulling in and out of the water off the right side of the boat. We realized that this was an ocean sunfish, a strange-looking visitor to our waters this time of the year. We didn't have time to stop on this fish but we pointed it out to our passengers onboard.

Music fluking out off Race Point Beach.

As we traveled past Race Point Beach, we picked up a few minke whales that appeared to be feeding deep. Minkes are the smallest of all the baleen whales and a beautiful whale that feeds in our waters each spring, summer and fall.

Apostrophe's 2008 calf. 

Manhattan's ventral tail pattern. 

Our next sighting was a trio of humpbacks that turned out to include Manhattan, Music and Apostrophe's 2008 calf. This small group also appeared to be feeding deep as they continued to come up in relatively the same area each time they returned to the surface to breathe. 

Longboard fluking out next to the boat. 

There were a few other humpbacks in the area and all appeared to be feeding deep. We were able to identify one of these whales as Longboard. Longboard was born in 2007 to a mother named Reaper. 

Bubble net produced by Habanero.

But the star of the show was a mother humpback whale named Habanero who started surface feeding using bubble nets right off our stern. Habanero was born in 2000 to a mother named Pepper. This is probably Habanero's second calf and this calf was staying very close to mom's side.  There was a third whale with this mother and calf pair and we identified it as a whale named Lillium who was first seen in 2008.  

Kick feeding by Habanero.

Habanero was kick feeding just before she dove to create the bubble net. As the bubbles would rise to the surface in a circular manner, but Habanero and Lillium would rise mouth's open scooping up as much fish and water as possible. Then both whales would strain or push the water back out of the mouth to leave only the fish behind. Over the past few weeks, most of the feeding has been deep so we have missed all this great surface activity.

Habanero and Lillium surface feeding. 

Here is a photo sequence of Habanero and Lillium feeding right off the port side of the boat.



As both whales lunged mouth's wide agape, we could see the baleen hanging down from the upper jaw. What a sight! As both whale's strained at the surface, we could see scraping on the right side of Habanero's upper jaw. We assume this is caused as the whales go to the bottom of the ocean floor and roll on their sides to dig through the sand for their favorite prey, American sand lance.

One of our passengers sent in some photos taken during this trip. Here is Habanero filtering next to the boat. Love the images of the baleen visible between the upper and lower jaws. 

Before we knew it, we had to start heading home. What an incredible day with views of endangered humpback whales and protected minke whales. We also had great views of manx shearwaters, sooty shearwaters, Cory's shearwaters, Northern gannets and common terns.