June 22, 2012 Whale Watches

9 am and 2 pm Whale Watches - Krill 

9 am trip - Krill and NECWA intern Michael Cahill

Here is a short video that I put together from video taken during the 9 am whale watch aboard the Tails of the Sea.  It was a lot of fun putting this together and I hope you enjoy it!

Today was a blistering hot day in Plymouth and there was no better place to escape the heat than out on the water. We had a great day of whale watching offshore today. We got to see 2 gray seals, 1 minke whale, and 5 humpback whales.

Heading out to Stellwagon Bank, we were surrounded by balls of bait and much of it appeared to be sand lance that were jumping at the surface. The baitfish had the attention of the seabirds and gulls as these aerial predators swooped in to get a meal.

Our first encounter with whales was a special pair of humpback whales that we identified as Scylla and her new calf of this year. Scylla was feeding on baitfish using a bubble net technique and was lunging towards the surface in an attempt to catch the fish. Also feeding in this area was a humpback whale named Orbit. Orbit is an adult female whale who does not have a calf this season.  

At the end of our trip we got a good look at Tulip and her new calf. Tulip has been on a watch list because of her gaunt appearance.  She has been losing weight and looks very thin.  Researchers at the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies have asked all whale watching boats to alerted them if Tulip is seen offshore so they can access her health and the situation.  So our captain immediately called the team to provide a time and location for this special pair.  Unfortunately, the PCCS team was not able to observe Tulip for they were busy trying to disentangle another humpback who was caught in fishing gear down the backside of the Cape.  Lets keep our fingers crossed for this mother and hopefully she will pull through.  If we hear any additional news on the fate and health of Tulip and her calf, we will post it on this blog to keep everyone updated. 

June 21, 2012 Whale Watches

9 am and 2 pm Whale Watches - Joanne

9 am Trip

We left the harbor aboard the Tails of the Sea with very unseasonably warm temperatures, light winds and calm seas, and a haze offshore.  A few miles east of the Gurnet Lighthouse, we passed a minke whale and a sunfish.  We continued through the southwest corner, the middle of Stellwagen Bank (where we got a wonderful look at a seal eating a fish) and to the east, over 25 miles without another whale sighting!  

Coordinating our efforts with 5 other whale watching boats from 4 ports we covered miles and miles of water; we finally got word of a small group of minke whales on the southern edge of Stellwagen Bank. As we headed there, a pair of humpback whales was finally located. We got to the pair and discovered it was a cow/calf humpback pair (mom and baby); and while she had been seen the day prior, no one had yet to identify her, so we were happy to do it.  Diablo was documented as a new mom and brought our total for the year to 28 documented cow/calf pairs so far this season.  While she didn’t raise her tail out of the water, her calf threw its entire body, full breaching several times.  It came right next to our boat, swimming under our bow and around us, giving everyone on board a spectacular view of the entire outline of its body and glowing white flippers.

We were lucky enough to spend about 30 minutes with the pair, the entire time of which the calf was active at the surface, even as we headed towards port, it continued to breach off our stern.  Diablo’s calf is approximately 5 months old, having been born in the warm waters of the Caribbean during the winter. Stellwagen Bank is a feeding ground and a nursery for humpback whales.  Whales that are brought here as calves have a very high likelihood of returning due to a strong site fidelity to their mother’s feeding area.  Diablo and her calf with spend the next 4-7 months together and then the calf will be on its own, hopefully having learned everything it needs to survive.

2 pm Trip

On our afternoon trip, we travelled to a different location with a report of a few more humpback whales.  We came across a mature humpback named Hancock. Hancock was doing some bubble net feeding, coming up lunging through the water, giving us spectacular looks off the rorqual grooves extended.  Hancock was named for a ‘scribble’ on the right fluke reminiscent of the signature of John Hancock. Traditionally, whales are not given a name of a person or a name indicating gender, but this one slipped through.

Not far from Hancock, we had a cow/calf pair—Scylla and her 11^th known calf.  Scylla was born in 1981 to Istar and is the only other reproductive female documented in her lineage.  She has 10 documented siblings, and while her brothers Cloud, Littlespot and Tigris visit Stellwagen Bank occasionally they prefer more northerly waters.  In 2005, she was the first documented cow/calf pair in the Gulf of Maine having been sighted 41 days earlier in the West Indies, making the fastest documented migration of a mother-calf pair in the North Atlantic.  She is immortalized by a life size model at the National Aquarium in Baltimore.

June 20, 2012 Whale Watches

9 am and 2 pm Whale Watches - Tammy and Michael

9 am trip - Tammy

Happy first day of summer! It was a gorgeous day offshore with very warm temperatures and fairly calm seas. 

We began our trip with a very special sighting of two humpback whales, Scylla and her 2012 calf. It is always so fun to see new calves in their first few months on Stellwagen Bank.  Scylla was spending a lot of time down and the green bubbles we saw rising to the surface let us know that she was feeding deep. Humpback whales use bubbles as a way to concentrate/corral their prey. Usually calves can’t hold their breath as long as mom can and will spend more time at the surface while mom is down, but this hearty calf almost always came up with its mother. Although the calf was diving with mom, it likely was not feeding with mom. Calves will nurse most of the summer and mom will teach them to feed in late July or August.  

Our second sighting was of a humpback whale named Hancock. We also saw Hancock producing bubbles but this time it was a bubble-net, a ring of bubbles created by the whale to concentrate their prey in a tight ball. Hancock was surface feeding, also called lunge feeding and we could see the ventral throat pleats distended and the mouth filled with water and fish. 

We also had really quick sightings of two finback whales. The first finback was definitely living up to its nickname, the “greyhound of the sea”, as it was traveling very fast and diving quickly. The second finback was also not spending much time at the surface, but the size of finback whales are always an awe-inspiring sight, as they can be 80-90 feet long.  We had another quick look at Scylla and calf before heading home. What a great day!

2 pm trip - Michael

Today’s trip had fantastic weather out on the water, which provided an excellent escape from the heat on land.  Our first sighting as we reached Stellwagen bank was of two humpback whales, a mother and a calf.  Thanks to her distinctive dorsal fin and a few fluke out dives, it was easy to determine that this mother was a whale named Boomerang. 

Hancock

After observing these two for a while, we moved on to another active humpback whale named Hancock who gave us a magnificent display of bubble feeding up at the surface.  Hancock burst up through the surface in spectacular fashion, mouth open, and took a huge gulp of water before slowly straining the water through the baleen. 

Given the excellent weather conditions, we were also able to spot a finback whale in the distance and a small basking shark whose dorsal fin was just breaking the surface of the water.  For our last sighting out on the bank, we met up with another humpback whale mother and calf pair who were traveling together.

June 19, 2012 Whale Watches

9 am and 2 pm Whale Watches - Tammy and Michael

9 am trip - Tammy

We had a great morning onboard the Tails of the Sea with sightings of humpback whales, minke and finback whales and a huge basking shark! Our humpback sighting included a mother named Boomerang and her calf of this year. This calf is only a few months old and it was having fun breaching while mom was on long dives; we were treated to spinning head breaches, chin breaches and tail breaches. 

We also had several beautiful looks at finback whales. Finbacks have an asymmetrical pattern on their right sides called the blaze and chevron which we can use to identify individuals. As one finback swam across our bow we had excellent views of this unique coloration. 

Towards the end of our trip we had brief sightings of a couple of minke whales, the smallest baleen whales that we see on Stellwagen Bank. Minkes are much smaller than their humpback or finback cousins, only reaching 20-30 feet in length and they can be quite elusive.  

One of the most exciting parts of our trip was a very close encounter with a huge basking shark! This shark was about 20 feet long and was swimming right next to our boat while feeding. Basking sharks eat plankton by swimming with their mouths open and filtering the plankton using gill rakers, little fine-tooth combs in their gills slits. Everyone had amazing views inside this shark’s mouth as it swam right towards us. This sighting was a small reminder that while whales are incredible animals, there are many other amazing creatures that live in the sea!

Thanks to NECWA intern Brandon Wheaton for the spinning breach photo. Nice job!

2 pm trip - Michael

On today's whale watch, we had to battle some tough weather conditions but we still managed to have a great time out on Stellwagen Bank.  Our first sighting was of a speedy Finback whale, who was doing some substantial sub-surface feeding.  This animal would come up for a sequence of breaths, maybe 3 to 5, and then head down on a much longer dive to chase after the American Sand Lance, the #1 bait fish out on the bank. After we got a couple looks at this individual, we then headed towards two Humpback whales, Boomerang and her new calf.

Both of these animals were very active, coming up to take some breaths and then going down for a deeper dive.  We were able to get some fantastic close up looks as these whales as they swam all around our boat, and while Boomerang spent her time beneath the surface looking for fish, the calf was slightly more playful.  We were even lucky enough to watch the calf roll over at the surface and show us those long rorquals that act like an accordion when these animals take huge gulps of water.  We also got a great look at the calf's long pectoral flippers that help it to steer through the water.  

June 18, 2012 Whale Watches

9 am Whale Watching Trips - Humpback Whale Sabot Found Entangled

This morning three Captain John Boats headed offshore for private whale watches. While whale watching on Stellwagen Bank and within the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, our captain and crew sighted an entangled humpback whale named Sabot. This whale was entangled in fishing gear and our captains reported that fishing line went through the whale's mouth and a significant amount of line was trailing the animal's body. A fishing buoy was also observed as well as a weak link. Weak links are structures that part when extreme pressure is exerted on the line and have been used in recent years to save large marine animals accidentally caught in the gear. 

As soon as this entangled humpback whale was sighted, our naturalists and captains immediately contacted the disentanglement team at the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies (PCCS). As the disentanglement team prepared to get offshore, a number of watching boats, including two Captain John Boats, took turns standing by Sabot to keep an eye on her until PCCS arrived on site. 

It is very important that a vessel stays with the entangled animal until the disentanglement team arrives on site. Entangled animals that are left before the team arrives are typically not relocated even if a short period of time has elapsed. We would like to thank our passengers for their understanding and patience as both the Tails of the Sea and the Capt. John & Son IV took turns standing by Sabot. And special thanks to our captains and crew aboard the two Captain John Boats that participated in this rescue. Thank you to Capt. Tommy O'Reilly  and naturalist Michael O'Neill who were onboard the Tails of the Sea.  And thank you to Capt. Bob Avila and naturalist Tammy Silva who were working aboard the Capt. John & Son IV. Great effort by one and all on behalf of this whale!

Our captains also provided the PCCS disentanglement team with important information about the configuration of the fishing gear. Our boats radioed over to the PCCS team that fishing line passed through her mouth and through the baleen on both sides. They also noted that there were no knots or kinks in the line and they provided the location of the buoy and weak link. Detailed information on the type of fishing gear and its configuration on the animal's body provides important information for the disentanglement team and helps them determine the best way to proceed. 

Here is an update from our naturalist Tammy Silva who was aboard the Capt. John & Son IV. 


"PCCS worked on the whale until about 4:00 this afternoon. They were able to remove most of the line coming out of either side of the mouth, leaving only a few feet of line left inside. The team is confident that the whale will quickly shed the small piece of remaining gear on it's own once it starts to feed. This is a pretty positive result; hopefully the whale will be re-sighted with no gear at all and if I receive any further updates I will be sure to post them. Thanks again to all of our passengers for your patience and concern for this whale and thanks to Capt. Bob Avila and our crew for a fantastic job today! I'll post a summary and some photos on our blog in the next couple of days!"


Here is some information from our naturalist Michael O'Neill who was aboard the Tails of the Sea. Photos from Michael are below.


"During our morning trip, we came across an entangled whale named Sabot who had line caught in its mouth and was trailing a green buoy behind it. Thankfully the Dolphin IX quickly called the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies disentanglement team who were able to quickly respond to the call.  Since the Dolphin IX had to leave the animal and head back to the harbor, we maintained contact via phone and on the radio with the PCCS team and stayed with the entangled animal until the disentanglement team arrived.  After many hours of working on the entanglement the PCCS team was able to remove approximately 25 feet of line from the animal including the buoy at the end.  The remaining line still caught in the mouth of the whale was deemed a non-lethal entanglement and we are hopeful that the whale will be able to get rid of the remaining line on its own.

Our captains and naturalists will continue to keep an eye out for this whale and will provide the PCCS disentanglement team with additional information and photos if possible.  We will also continue to provide updates on this blog and on the Captain John Facebook account. 

2 pm Whale Watch - Michael 

Today's trip was one of the most action-packed we've had all summer! We started out with a brief glimpse of a solo Finback whale, traveling very quickly. We did not spend too much time with this individual because we could spot some very active Humpbacks off in the distance.  On our way to these Humpbacks we were lucky enough to come across a Basking shark filter-feeding up at the surface.  Captain Tommy did a great job maneuvering the Tails of the Sea around this creature so that everyone on board could get a great look at this magnificent fish. 

Once the shark moved on, we spotted Scylla and her calf. Scylla treated us to several fluke-out dives and her calf was busy breaching several times! This calf certainly had a lot of energy!  After spending a fair bit of time with these two Humpbacks we headed off to another Humpback named Hancock.  Hancock displayed some very aggressive surface feeding, taking huge gulps of water loaded with fish.  We got a great change to see those fantastic roquals or throat pleats that expand and allow Humpbacks to take in so much water with each gulp!

And as if all that wasn't enough, on our way home to Plymouth, we came across another mother and calf pair who also had tons of energy! This calf put on a fantastic sequence of breaches, giving our trip a great ending as we headed back to the harbor.