July 19, 2012 Whale Watches

9 am and 2 pm Whale Watches - Joanne

9 am trip:

We had a wonderful morning surrounded by endangered humpback whales on the southwest corner of Stellwagen Bank.  We began with an associated pair--Snowslide and Mend.  Snowslide is named for a white scar down the middle of its flukes that was likely the result of an entanglement. And Mend was recently named in our spring/summer round of whale naming.  This pair made a few close passes to our boat, giving passengers a wonderful look at the juvenile whales.  Jupiter, also recently named, the 2008 calf of Mars, was traveling solo and crossed right off our bow, letting us see the long white flippers glowing bright green through the algae and plankton rich waters.  

Bounce came right over to our boat, rolling over and ‘checking us out’ as we checked it out. We could actually see Bounce’s eye as it rolled over and swam the length of our boat.  The flipper came out of the water and the rorqual grooves were visible. It was incredible to see the whale’s eye looking right at us.  The highlight of our trip!

In the distance, we had Draco and Echo, both mature whales (born in 1998 to Trident and first seen in 1988, respectively).   Another humpback, Snare, as well as a few minkes, came by as we got our last looks before returning to port.

2 pm trip:

We headed back to the southwest corner and began our trip with Echo and Draco.  Echo was  flipperslapping, smacking her 15 foot long flipper against the water’s surface. We don’t know why they do this, but it is always exciting to see it, some theories include communication, play/just for fun, marking a territory, but we don’t know why.  Echo and Draco dove right at our boat, raising their flukes high out of the water off our bow.

Bounce remained in the area, making one close pass to us, but not associating with either group of humpbacks. Humpbacks are solitary animals, like all baleen whales and typically travel alone; but humpbacks are quite social and occasionally form associations that may last a few minutes, hours, days or in some rarer cases weeks or from year to year.

In the same area, we had an association of three humpbacks, including: Pele, Eruption & Jupiter.  This group was indicating by their surfacing pattern the likelihood that they were deeper feeding.  Pele and Eruption have had a longer term association over the last week to 10 days being seeing with each other quite a bit of the time.  Pele was satellite tagged in last year’s project and Eruption was tagged this year, but her tag came off within 24 hours of placement.

Another incredible day offshore with Captain John Whale Watching!

July 18, 2012 Whale Watches

9 am and 2 pm Whale Watches - Krill and Leah

9 am trip:  Krill with blog written by NECWA intern Michael Cahill

Here is a short video of the close approach we had by a very sleepy humpback whale. We never were able to identify this individual for we only saw its dorsal fin. However, we have a sneaky suspicion that this is Echo.

Gray Seal

It was another hot summer day in Plymouth! With temperatures reach 90 degrees it was a relief to get out on the water. The whales were also feeling the effect of the heat and many were taking advantage of this nice day by logging.

Logging is how a whale sleeps, as they float on the surface and rest their body. But whales are voluntary breathers for they must keep their mind alert to remember to keep breathing.

=

The first humpback whale we saw logging was keeping a very low profile as it rested at the surface. We finally got a look at its dorsal fin, but never saw its ventral tail pattern. This whale will be hard to identify, but not impossible. As we continued to watch this whale, the animal stretched and them drifted right over to the boat. This gave ua a chance to see just how massive and astonishing these creatures area.

Fluke out dive by Eruption

Pele

Old satellite tag scar on Pele

The next two humpbacks we found were much more energetic as they surfaced side-by-side. These were two whales by the names of Pele and Eruption. At one point, both Pele and Eruption swam towards the boat and went right under us. We got a great view of their flukes as they went on deep dives in search of a late morning meal.

Snowslide

Jupiter

Our third sighting of humpback whales was a pair that we idenfied as Bounce and Mend. Mend is the 2008 calf of a humpback whale named Vulture. Our last sighting was another pair of humpbacks that turned out to be Jupiter, and Snowslide.  Jupiter is the 2009 calf of Mars.

We also saw two minke whales and a single grey seal. But, also there was a wide array of birds off shore today including Wilson’s storm Petrels, sooty shearwaters, Cory shearwaters, and common terns. 

2 pm trip: Leah with blog written by NECWA intern Carly Hepburn

Video of Snare, a humpback whale that was very active right next to our boat. Perhaps the approaching thunder and lightening got this whale all riled up!

July 17, 2012 Whale Watches

9 am and 2 pm Whale Watches - Tammy

9 am trip:

Written by NECWA intern Kelsey P. 

It was a hot, sunny day when we were leaving the dock this morning. We traveled to the southwest corner of Stellwagen Bank where we had a bit of haze, but still about 6 to 7 miles visibility. 

Humpback whales Eruption and Mend were our first whales to be sighted this morning and they showed us some beautiful fluke out dives. Our second sighting was a group of four humpback whales. All four whales fluked out beautifully, and we were able to get great shots of their fluke patterns to identify them. This group included Pele, Echo, Snowslide, and Jupiter! It was amazing to see such large animals traveling together in synchronization.  

We then picked up two humpback whales, Vertex and her calf of this year. Both mom and calf were logging or resting on the surface. We had gorgeous looks at Vertex and her calf as they peacefully rested at the surface right next to our boat. We were also able to see minke whales as well. There was a small variety of sea birds out with us as well that consisted of Northern Gannets, Gulls, Sooty Shearwaters, and Greater Shearwaters. It was a beautiful morning out on the water with a large variety of wildlife around us!

2 pm trip:

Written by NECWA intern Kelsey P.

This afternoon’s trip was so unique! As we traveled toward Stellwagen Bank, the wind picked up dramatically from the morning trip. We were welcomed by a group of three humpbacks named Jupiter, Echo, and Snowslide.  Jupiter gave us a beautiful tail breach right next to the boat, and there were fluke out dives by all three whales. 

 After leaving this trio, we traveled further to the northeast where we saw large splashes in the distance made by two different whales.  We passed a single humpback whale lob-tailing and headed toward the second large splash where we found a minke whale that was doing multiple full-body breaches, and chin breaches! We see humpback whales breach on about 10% of our trips but to witness a minke whale breach is even rarer and it was absolutely fantastic to see! 

Our next sighting was another group of three humpbacks named Pele, Eruption, and Mend.  We had amazing views of these three humpbacks as they traveled right toward our boat and spent a short time next to us before showing off their beautiful tails.  Aside from the two species of whales seen, we did see a variety of sea birds as well including Wilson’s Storm-Petrels, gulls, Sooty Shearwaters, Cory’s Shearwaters, and Greater Shearwaters. This was an amazing trip, and the breaching minke was definitely the highlight of the trip.

July 16, 2012 Whale Watch

9 am and 2 pm Whale Watches - Michael and Leah

9 am trip: Michael

Blog written by NECWA Intern Brandon

We had an exciting day out on the water today by Race Point.  Our sightings started with a Minke whale, which swam right up to the boat as we approached the tip of the Cape.

Shortly after we arrived, Race Point was covered in a thick blanket of fog but despite weather conditions we were able to observe 6-7 humpback whales actively feeding up at the surface. Our first humpback whale encountered was Echo, who treated us to some fantastic kick-feeding. After observing Echo for some time, we viewed a larger group in the same area creating bubble clouds, and straining up at the surface. After reviewing our photos we were able to identify the whales as Draco, Milkweed, Vertex & her 2012 calf. It was quite a sight to see that many whales feeding up close to the boat despite the fog.

While the primary focus of our trip was of course the whales, there were a great number of birds trying to catch a free lunch by stealing some of the fish the whales were corralling. Some of the species we saw included: Greater Shearwaters, Cory’s Shearwaters, Common Terns and Double-crested Cormorants.

2 pm trip: Leah

July 15, 2012 Whale Watches

9 am Whale Watch - Krill 

Blog written by NECWA intern Carly Hepburn:

Minke whale

We had another beautiful morning whale watching today on the backside of Cape Cod by the Highland Light, Truro.  We saw 7 humpback whales, 4-6 minke whales, and a quick glimpse of a gray seal.  

Flock

Our first sighting of humpback whales was a group of two that we identified as Flock and Mar's 2008 calf.  Flock was first seen in 2008 but we are not sure of this whales age. We stayed and watched these two whales for a little while but then moved on once we spotted a few blows farther up ahead. 

Humpback whale surfacing.

Our next group of humpback whales was another pair who we identified as Eruption and Pele. Pele is a male humpback whale first seen in 1997. Eruption is a 13-year old female humpback whale who is the daughter of Dusky.  In 2008 Eruption had her first calf who has not yet been named. We saw both Eruption and Pele logging, a  resting on the surface. 

Eruption

Pele

Once again we saw more blows up ahead and headed over to our final sighting of our whale watching trip. This was another pair of humpback whales and we were able to identify one of the pair as a whale named Snowslide.  Snowslide was first sighted in 2007 .  Snowslide and the unknown whale were doing deep dives and were feeding under the surface of the water.  After we watched the pair of humpback whales come up one last time we headed back to Plymouth after an exciting morning whale watching.  

11 am Whale Watch - Diane

Wow!  Today was a hot one and we were all happy to get off the dock.  The sea conditions were beautiful as we headed out towards the backside of the Cape and came within sight of the "golf ball" which if off Highland Light, Truro. 


There were a number of humpbacks   in the area but we followed two adults that were feeding deep and staying down for five minute dives. We got some close looks but not a lot of tail flukes.  We had at least 5 minkes in the distance.  

As we headed home we saw a huge splash that indicated a humpback had come right out of the water.   We stopped to have a look and found our old friend Echo.  This was confirmed by our onboard photographer Mikaela, who got a beautiful shot of the tail flukes. We also had two harbor seals pop up for a visit.  It was a wonderful day to be offshore!

Common Tern

2 pm Whale Watch - Krill 

Blog report written by NECWA intern Katherine McKenna

Great Black Backed Gull with lunch.

Great Black Backed Gull with lunch.

Mar's 2009 calf fluking out

Snowslide flaking out next to lobster buoy. 

Snowslide

Mar's 2009 calf

Snowslide

As we headed out to the backside of the Cape for our afternoon whale watch the winds began to pick up and the cloud cover began to increase which cooled us off on this scorching hot day. 

We were hoping that this would lead to some great sightings as humpback whales tend to get more active as the winds first pick up. Around Race Point we spotted many species of birds including manx, greater, sooty, and Corey’s shearwaters that were feeding on some baitfish at the surface.

Snowslide 

We kept our eyes peeled for some feeding whales since these birds feed on the same fish as humpback whales. Seeing a large group of feeding birds is therefore a good indicator of potential feeding whales. With no whales surface feeding, we decided to head towards a pair of blows we spotted off Highland Light, Truro. As we approached this pair we were able to identify one of the humpbacks as Snowslide who was spotted earlier on the morning trip.

This pair was doing a series of short, forceful dives which are typically an indicator of subsurface feeding. At one point, these whales were moving very fast leading us to believe they were chasing after their prey, the North American sand lance. 

Captain Tommy O’Reilly, did a fantastic job of predicting their movements and was able to give passengers on both sides of the boat some great views as the whales surfaced and fluked out right next to the boat multiple times. 

Young gray seal.

While the whales were down on a deep dive, we had a sighting of a gray seal swimming at the surface. We decided to leave these whales and travel to another location where whales had been spotted earlier. Although we didn’t spot any humpbacks, we got some great looks at some minke whales.