July 14, 2012 Whale Watches

9 am Whale Watch - Joanne

We headed across the southern edge of Stellwagen Bank and down the backside of the Cape where we’d spent the last 7-10 days watching whales.  In the last 24-36 hours, things had changed a bit, with the large numbers of whales having departed the area off Highland Light.  We had half a dozen humpback whales that remained, all having been seen the days prior.  Additionally, we saw sooty, greater and Cory’s shearwaters and a Pomeranian Jaeger and a few minke whales in the area.

 

We started with a newly named whale, Mend. Mend was surfacing right off our bow, giving passengers a wonderful look at the long white pectoral fins glowing green below the plankton rich water, as well as the black bumps (tubercles) covering its head.  Mend was surfacing very quietly, actually coming up in a spy hop before even breathing.  Not far from Mend, we spent time with Flock and Ventisca (which was tagged the Thursday prior as part of a Satellite tagging project).  This pair had been seen a few times together over the 48 hours prior.  

We finished our trip with a wonderful look at Eruption (also part of the satellite tagging project), Pele and Milkweed.  This trio had spent part of the day prior associated as well. Humpbacks, like all baleen whales are solitary animals, and do not travel in pods or family groups like toothed whales; but they are quite social and often for associations that may last minutes, hours, days, or in some rarer cases weeks/months or for some time each year.

2 pm Whale Watch - Joanne

We headed back to Highland light and were delighted to find the half a dozen humpbacks still deep feeding in the area. We had several seals close to our boat, some ‘bottling’ right next to us (like bottles floating in water).  We also had minke whales in the area.

Ventisca, Draco, Jupiter, Snowslide, Eruption, Mend, Flock were all nearby, starting as two pairs and a trio.  But the 7 whales kept switching associations, at one point all coming together, then breaking up into a group of 4 and a group of 3 and finally, ending as a pair, trio, pair again (but with different whale associated). It was a great example of the social behavior of humpback whales.  In addition, their surfacing pattern and length of dives indicated they were likely bottom feeding or feeding deep in the water column.  At one point, we had three humpback whales surface right under our bow, giving us the most exceptional look at their entire bodies from one end to the other.

On our way back in Plymouth Harbor, we got a chance to see the Barquentine Peacemaker.  She was built on a riverbank in southern Brazil by an Italian family of boat builders, using traditional methods and the finest tropical hardwoods. The ship was first launched in 1989 as the Avany, a name chosen by her designer and owner, Frank Walker, a Brazilian industrialist.  They brought her to the United States to be rigged and she sat in a boatyard in Georgia until 2000, when some interested parties took her over and had her rigged and sailing as the Peacemaker in spring of 2007.


2 pm Whale Watch - Diane

What a perfect day to get off the wharf and go whale watching.  We left under partly cloudy skies that soon turned full sun and headed to Stellwagen Bank.  

The wind was warm and the seas where calm .  After reaching the bank we were able to watch two adult humpbacks that stayed very close to a whale watching vessel  about 100 yards away from us.  They appeared to be mainly logging and taking five minute dives with out a lot of surface activity.  It was very frustrating because it appeared that these whales were never going to leave the other boat and come in our direction.  

Our patience paid off in a wonderful way!  The two came to our boat and gave us quite a show, rolling on their sides to look up at our passengers and spy hopping at the bow.  They stayed with us for the rest of the trip and moved from port to starboard,people watching! This was a rare and beautiful occurrence, even for those of us that frequent Stellwagen!  To top the day off we had numerous minkes popping up in the distance.

July 13, 2012 Whale Watches

9 am and 2 pm Whale Watches - Krill

9 am trip: written by NECWA intern Kate Davis

Here is some video taken during this trip by Krill. Enjoy!

We had yet another morning of absolutely gorgeous weather from Plymouth harbor all the way to the backside of the Cape, which is where we found our whales today. We saw many groups of humpback whales and most were in small groups of two or three. 

At the start of our trip, most groups were logging, a resting behavior where the whale floats at the surface of the water and takes a breath every few minutes. We saw some beautiful fluke out dives from these whales as they lazily dove beneath the water's surface. 

Cory's Shearwater

Greater Shearwater

We were lucky again today in the number of pelagic birds we saw offshore, including sooty shearwaters, greater shearwaters, and Cory’s shearwaters and Wilson’s Storm Petrels who crossed our bow and flew along side our vessel.

The best part of this morning’s whale watch came at the very end when two humpback whales started feeding mouth open at the surface. These whales were blowing bubbles to concentrate their prey, the American Sandlance, and push it to the surface. They they would lunge mouth's wide open as they engulfed as much food and water as possible. Next, the whales would strain, push the water back out of the mouth leaving only the fish behind. Amazing! They were so close you could see the baleen! Look at their dorsal fins and their ventral tail patterns, we were able to identify these two humpbacks as Crown and Apex. 

Krill and I looked over our photographs on the way home and when back on land to continue our photo-ID work. Here is a list to date of the humpback whales we were able to identify on today's trip: Echo, Tectonic, Flock, Crown, Apex, Springboard, Milkweed and Pele. 

After the whales went down on deeper dives, our captain set our course for home. What a wonderful Friday the 13^th! 

2 pm trip: written by NECWA intern Kate Davis

We headed out of Plymouth harbor to a different destination than the trip this morning after hearing reports of humpback whales on the southwest corner of Stellwagen Bank. When we reached this area, we found two humpback whales that we were able to identify as Orbit and Columbia, two adult female whales that we have seen throughout the season.

Here is a video taken during today's trip. You can see how lazy both females are as they slowly travel side-by-side.

These whales were being very predictable, coming up to the surface almost exactly seven minutes after they dove, which was very helpful. This gave us time share some facts about humpback whales while we waited for them to return to the surface. We wish all our whales went on timed dives, it would be so efficient!

These whales also appeared to be in Zen mode, spending a few minutes breathing at the surface, moving very slowly, and then taking calm fluke out dives down. Columbia even did a few lazy rolls!

It’s interesting that each of these animals are mature females that have had calves in previous years. Columbia was first seen in 1980 and has had 9 calves. Some of her calves have been seen with calves of their own through several generations which makes her a great-great-grandmother. The names of her calves are: Inland, Splinter, Shillelagh, Cosmos, Rouge, Pharos and three of her calves are unnamed.

Orbit was first seen in 1979 and has also had 9 calves of her own; she is also a great-great-grandmother. Her calves include Tendril, Isthmus, Division, Vertex, Deflection, and four unnamed calves.

This trip ended up being very different than our morning trip, but proved that different can be just as enjoyable. It looks like our Friday the 13^th turned out to be a lucky one all day!

July 12, 2012 Whale Watches

9 am and 2 pm Whale Watches - Joanne

9 am trip:

We had near perfect conditions traveling across Massachusetts Bay.  Our first sighting was of huge endangered finback whale off the southern edge of Stellwagen Bank between the bank and Race Point.  The animal was moving relatively slowly, spending 7-9 breaths at the surface before arching and diving.  

We continued southeast down the backside to where the larger concentrations of humpback whales had been seen of late.  Once of highland light, whales were quite numerous, including humpbacks and minkes. 

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Our first sighting included Lariat, raising its flukes high out of the water.  Not far from her, we saw the Grande Dame herself—SALT-- and headed right over to see her!  She was traveling with Buckshot, both mature females.  Salt has been seen off Massachusetts in all but one summer since 1976.  Salt was the first Gulf of Maine humpback whale to be seen by researchers on the Silver Bank breeding ground.  And she is one of only a few Gulf of Maine whales to have been seen in the West Indies in three separate years.

Rattan traveling with Bounce and a third whale we only got a glimpse of; with a feeding trio in-shore, which we headed to, including Rocker (a mature male) bubble feeding with Abrasion (who’s calf was nearby).  Before having to return to port, we got to see Echo and Draco.  Echo was first seen in 1988 and although we don’t know her predecessors, genetics tells us she is descended from the same distant ancestors as Cardhu and Trident.  She has given birth to 6 calves since she was first seen; unfortunately, her first calf (Monogram) has not been seen since its calf year and her second calf, Beacon, died in December 2004 (cause unknown). 

2 pm trip:

Here is some video taken during the afternoon trip by Krill. Enjoy!

We headed offshore to the same area we had travelled to in the morning—down the backside of Cape Cod towards Cape Cod Light.  The whales continued to be quite numerous with several dozen humpback whales and a dozen minke whales in the area!  We had humpback whales all around us in every direction, including many of them surfacing right off our bow and stern. 

The majority of whales appeared to be searching for food and/or feeding deeper in the water column.   Fracture was one of a few feeding at the surface through a bright green bubble clouds.  Fracture was first seen in 1980, but he was not a calf, so his relatives are unknown.  He is primarily seen on Stellwagen Bank and in the Great South Channel.  In 1993, he was seen by whale watchers on over 70 days from April through October a record that only a handful of whales have topped. 

Humpbacks seen included adults and juveniles, several newly named whales, and a mom/calf pair, along with males and females—we had the full spectrum:  Apex, Buckshot, Crown, Dusky and calf, Eruption, Duckpin, Flock, Fracture, Infinity, Hatchmark, Milkweed, Pogo, Rattan, Rapier’s 09 calf, Rocker, Powerline, Swallowtail, Springboard, Seal, Vertex, & Ventisca.

July 11, 2012 Whale Watches

9 am and 2 pm Whale Watches - Krill 

9 am trip:


Here is a video overview from our morning and afternoon trips. This video clip is just a little over 4 minutes, but it gives a nice overview of all the different behaviors we observed over the course of the day.

Dorsal fluke of Crown. 

Ventral fluke of Crown. 

We had another day of beautiful weather on this morning’s trip.  We headed down the back side of the Cape and couldn’t have been more fortunate in our sightings.

We passed a grey seal in the early part of our trip as well as 6 to 8 minkes whales. We also saw many pelagic birds, including Wilson's storm petrels, Cory's shearwaters, greater shearwaters, manx shearwaters and sooty shearwaters. 

Our passengers were great for they shouted out locations of animals around the boat as we moved into the area where whales were sighted. The further south we went, the more obvious it became that we were going to have a great show today. We even saw saw many active behaviors in the distance, including spinning head breaching by a pair of active humpback whales. 

Eruption and unknown humpback whale. 

Soon a trio of humpback whales surfaced next to the boat. We were able to identify only two of the animals in this group including Crown and Eruption. The third whale never lifted its tail out of the water (That little stinker! Doesn’t he know we’re trying to collect data?) so were not able to determine the identify or name of this animal. The individuals in this trio were displaying a resting behavior known as logging as they floated just below the surface of the water.

Underline flipper slapping.

Underline flipper slapping.

We left this trio and started headed southeast and soon spotted an active humpback whale flipper slapping at the surface. This whale was an active animal named Underline.  It’s quite something to watch these animals raise their 15-ft pectoral flippers out and slap them on the surface; it can also make a very satisfying slap!

Entropy

At the end of our trip, we spotted a pair of humpback whales we identified as Rune and Entropy. They were also logging right below the surface. Rune is a mature female first seen in 1980 who has had 10 calves.  Entropy is  an mature female first seen in 1997 who has had 3 calves. 

Rune

Rune fluking out 

All in all, we saw at least 15 humpback whales in the area and were able to identify quite a few. By looking at the underside of the fluke, or tail of the whale. Humpbacks seen included: Underline, Rune, Crown, Entropy, Eruption, Springboard, Snare, and Gunslinger by then end of the trip.

GraySeal. 

Greater Shearwater.

2 pm trip: written by NECWA intern Katherine McKenna

Don't forget to watch the video from today's whale watches. This video is the first thing listed under the 9 am trip blog. Best, Krill

Entropy fluking out.

Echo

Tectonic

Double fluke out dives

Ventisca's very white dorsal.

Ventisca

Rattan

Seal with greater shearwater. 

We had an absolutely wonderful day for whale watching with clear skies and a nice breeze to keep us cool. As we headed out to the backside of the Cape, we got some good looks at around 10 minke whales on all sides of the boat, but didn’t stop as we had to continue travelling towards the area where humpbacks were spotted earlier in the day.

Minke whale.

As we approached this area, off Highland Light, Truro, there were already 3 other whale watching boats on location. However, we had at least 20 humpbacks in the area, so there were plenty of animals to watch for all of us!

Our first pair of humpbacks, which we later identified as Sprinkler and Snare, were very active and were both lobtailing side-by-side. Lobtailing is an activity when the whale repeatedly lifts its fluke (tail) high out of the water and smacks it down on the surface. Then one whale rolled upside down and continued to lobtail, in this inverted position. We call this behavior “inverted lob tailing!"

lobtailing

Sprinkler

Snare inverted lobtailing.

Shortly after Sprinkler and Snare fluked out and dove on a deep dive, two pairs of whales surfaced on either side of our boat giving every passenger some great views. As the wind started to pick up, so did the activity as we had multiple spinning head breaches by a possible calf whose mom was in the area. We were very lucky to get some great looks at the breaches as we only see breaching on 10 percent of our trips! 

Tug towing a fuel barge.

Overall we had an amazing trip and using photo-ID we were able to identify 15 humpback whales: Draco, Apex, Sprinkler, Snare, Echo, Tectonic, Ventisca, Milkweed, Duckpin, Springboard, Eruption, Crown, Artillery, Rattan and Whiplash and for birds we had Greater, Cory’s, Manx, and Sooty Shearwaters as well as some Laughing Gulls.