Whale of a Day

Sunday was a gorgeous day, I spent did with around 100 other people on a whale watching boat (Plymouth Whale Watching), which leaves from the state pier with the Mayflower II is anchored.  The event is the twice a year, "Sea Bird & Whale Tales Excursion" sponsored By the New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance.  As opposed to the normal four hour whale watch trip, this is scheduled as a nine hour trip.  There are guest naturalists, NEWAC interns, plus the people on board are interested in nature, bird watching and whales.  Also, the amount of participants is limited.  Therefore, instead of being packed on board like a standard will watch, there is plenty of opportunity to be able to observe and photograph without being crowded.

Today's blog is just going to describe a small portion of the trip.  Since there was enough for a few blogs.  It was a beautiful day with everything from a high overcast bright sunny skies, the seas were basically calm, except in the afternoon down off the side of Cape Cod, where there was more of a slight's swell.  The winds did keep things cool, but not uncomfortable.

After leaving the dock in Plymouth, we slowly made our way around Plymouth Long Beach identifying the birds that were observed.  We then traveled up Cape Cod Bay out into the Atlantic to the Southwest corner of Stellwagon Bank.  As we were coming into Stellwagon Bank in the distance.  We saw a whale watching boat along with two humpbacks that kept breaching.  Slowly moving into the area, we came up to one humpback flipper slapping which it kept up for a while.  Then this whale decided to take a dive, showing us it's tail and then after being down a few minutes, the humpback came up and breached right in front of us.  Lucky I was ready and watching and was able to capture the activity of the breach.  The humpback started flipper slapping again and then for the second time dove and everybody was hoping for another breach.  However, the humpback decided to fool us, swam under the boat and came up on the other side and started flipper slapping.

Humpback Whale - Megaptera novaeangliae flipper slapping

Humpback Whale - Megaptera novaeangliae flipper slapping

Humpback Whale - Megaptera novaeangliae dive

Humpback Whale - Megaptera novaeangliae breach

Humpback Whale - Megaptera novaeangliae flipper slapping and you can see the humpbacks eye

Throughout the day we had other encounters with whales in activity and identified all four of the shearwaters, Northern fulmar, parasitic Jaeger and juveniles northern gannets.

Stay tuned for more of this adventure on future blogs.  The second Sunday in September will be the Fall Seabird & Whales Tales Excursion .  More information can be had at http://www.necwa.org/

Finishing up a Great Weekend

Juvenile Laughing Gull

On Sunday, September 7, I celebrated my birthday by going on the New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance Seabird and Whale's Tales Excursion.  This excursion occurs twice a year in June and September, and is the fundraiser for the organization to help their conservation efforts.  The spring trip was fantastic and that we saw between 40 and 45 humpback whales.  There are fantastic naturalists aboard, including Wayne Peterson gave running commentary on the birds that we saw and how to identify them, plus a commentary on the changing global climate.

This year's trip carried us to the northeast corner of Stellwagon Bank National Marine Sanctuary, after we cruised along the shore of Cape Cod from Races Point down to Truro.  There were greats sightings of birds, including a rare Sabine's gull.  We sighted all four species of shearwaters, along with three parasitic jaeger's.

Parasitic Jaeger

Parasitic Jaeger

Great and Cory's Shearwaters

Sabine's Gull

Great, Cory's, and Sooty Shearwaters

I also saw this very strange bird with strange wingtips that I could not identify :)

Cruising along Stellwagon, we came across the "Grand Dame of Stellwagon" Salt.  Salt was named by Captain Al Avellar who pioneered whale watching in New England.  This whale had a unique white pattern on her dorsal fin that reminded him of a sprinkle of salt- and that became her name. Salt is the first whale to be given a name. She has returned to the northwest Atlantic and the coast of New England every year since 1975, except one.  This year Salt has returned with her 13th calf.  Salt is also a grandmother.

Salt

Another whale that we saw named Bayou, who lost a portion of its fluke due to a strike by a ship's propeller.  In fact, because a major shipping lane crosses a portion of Stellwagon in the area where the right whales congregate, the shipping lanes have been moved 12 miles distant from where they originally were to help prevent strikes.  There is also a series of buoys that they are to sense the presence of whales, which the information is sent to ships in the area so that they can avoid them.

Bayou

One of the last whales that we observed was a very playful calf, who did rolls and all sorts of activities with its fluke and fins.

To be informed of when these trips occur, you can sign up at NECWA



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"Seabird and Whale Tales" June 2014

People fishing and observing a humpback whale

On Sunday, June 8, I again went on my favorite New England pelagic trip.  This trip is sponsored twice a year by the New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance.  It is called the   What makes it so great is that it is an eight hour trip rather than the usual four hour trips that the normal whale watching boats go out.  Therefore, we can travel to where the whales are and spend more time observing and photographing them, plus hopefully to see different pelagic bird species.

The day was bright and sunny until later afternoon when some clouds that come in.  The temperature on the ocean was in the 60s, without hardly any wind and the seas were smooth.  I met a lot of old friends and found some new friends.

Like last year, most of the whales were congregated off of Chatham Massachusetts.  The trip from Plymouth to the waters off of Chatham took around three hours, with stops to photograph a Parasitic Jaeger, Basking Shark and a large herd of gray seals swimming .

Parasitic Jaeger

Gray Seals

While will were traveling, I was able to help some new photographers with understanding the camera and the exposure triangle, plus the histogram to help them obtain decent photographs on this trip.

Arriving off the coast of Chatham, we did find whales, at least 33 named humpback whales, four new calfs and the Great Dame Of Stellwagon Bank "SALT".  Salt was the first humpback whale named back in 1975 by Capt. Al Aveller, who was the pioneer of whale watching in New England.  Salt has given birth to at least 13 calves, including one this year, plus she is a grandmother, and probably a great grandmother.  This makes the 39th year of Salt's appearance to the coast of New England.

Salt the Grand Am of Stellwagon Bank

Humpback whale head and blow

The power of a humpback whale

Humpback whale feeding with gulls coming in to catch any fish on the surface

Group feeding of humpback whales

One of the more interesting findings was the low number of pelagic birds.  Although we did see all four species of shearwaters, including over 170 sooty shearwaters, we only identified one great shearwater.  Usually great shearwaters are in the abundance around our area.  The reason for the lack of numbers pelagic birds could be food (although there were a lot of sand lances around which would be in fed on by the whales, dolphins, the gulls and bluefish) changes in the climate and the water.  We may have to wait for next year to see what the trend is.

Speaking of gulls, a glaucous gull showed up in the large group of gulls and was immediately identified because of its brilliant white color.

Glaucous Gull

As we were making our way back to Plymouth, we ran across a pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins, who size was estimated at around 200 and traveling with them was the second largest baleen whale the fin whale.

Atlantic White-Sided Dolphin and Fin Whale

Atlantic White-Sided Dolphin

As we are approaching Provincetown and Races Point, we sighted another basking shark.  Basking sharks spend a lot of time on the surface, where they eat zooplankton , small fish, and invertebrates.  Because of our time that they spend on the surface, their dorsal fin is sighted by people who think that they may be a great white shark.  Basking sharks are the second largest fish in the world, next to the whales shark.

Basking Shark Fin

The next trip will be September 7, 2014 and you can find out more information at http://www.necwa.org/trips.html

Fall Seabird and Whale Tale ExcursionAnd Humpback Whales

Humpback Whale Calf Head

On Sunday, September 8 the New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance held their annual fall Seabird and Whale Tale Excursion.  Normally, the trip would concentrate around Provincetown and the Stellwagon Bank.  However, lately there has been a lack of sightings of whales and seabirds in this area, so the plan was to travel down to the waters off of Chatham, where on the spring excursion we had a lot of sightings.  The day was sunny and warm, and the seas were calm.  As we were traveling down, Wayne Peterson, from the Massachusetts Audubon Society, gave a discourse on some of the reasons for the lack of seabirds and cetaceans in the area.  Citing that it is a complex problem, and deals with the entire food chain from phytoplankton all away up to the larger fish.  This could be just a normal cyclic event, but needs to be watched in the future.

As opposed to the spring excursion when we had 50 humpback whales feeding, on this trip, we only encountered three humpback whales.  These three humpback whales did put on a show for us.  Two of the whales identified, was Nine with her calf and the other whale was Lava.  Nine and her calf gave us great looks and approaches around and under our ship.  At one point, the calf started swimming around very actively and then dove, I said watch it's going to breach and it sure did given us two breaches.

Humpback Whale Calf Diving

Humpback Whale Breach

Humpback Whale Breach

 In the distance, another whale was seen breaching and when we were clear of Nine and her calf.  We made our way towards the other whale.  The whale was identified as Lava and gave us a look at tail slapping and flipper slapping.

Humpback Whale Tail Slapping

Humpback Whale Tail Slapping

Humpback Whale Flipper Slapping

Humpback Whale Flipper Slapping

Humpback Whale Tail in a Dive

Humpback whales scientific name is Megaptera novaeangliae which means Giant Wing New Englander, pertaining to their extremely long flippers and that they were cited frequently off the New England coast.

Breaching, tail slapping, flipper slapping activities of humpback whales, the real reason for these activities is not known, but there are a number of theories.  Some of the theories is communication, trying to clear mites from their body, or maybe just playtime.  My friend, Dr. Peter Beamish, from Newfoundland who has been studying humpback whale behavior feels that these activities are really communication because sound waves travel long distances on the water and the whales can't communicate, saying possibly come here to other whales or don't come here, depending on the presence or lack of food.  Maybe we'll never know.

On this trip, besides some of the normal birds that we saw, we also saw a shark and pods of common and Atlantic white sided dolphins.

The trip back was an adventure, from a gentle sea to a sea that had waves at times up to 10 feet.  The boat was going up and down with the Than trying to miss the deep troughs and the water was splashing over the bow.  They got really rough around races point, at which a number of the participants got mal de mer.  The crew and volunteers from the New England Coastal Alliance go to sleep.  We gone, narrowing the was Kyle some them up for a minute were very good and help in all these people.

"Sea Bird and Whale Tales Excursion" June 2013

Humpback Whale Feeding

For the fourth year in a row and the third year that I have been writing about it on my blog, I joined the New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance (NECWA) June all day "Sea Bird and Whale Tales Excursion".  NECWA sponsors this excursion twice a year, in June and September, and and the advantage over a normal whale watching trip is it last eight hours, a normal will watching trip usually only last the maximum of four hours.  This year, just like last year, after Memorial Day, the the whales have moved southward from Stellwagon Bank down to off of Chatham, following the food supply.  What this meant, was instead of a 1 to 1 1/2 hour trip out to Stellwagon from Plymouth, it is a approximately 3 hour trip down to Chatham.  On the way, there was some of the normal bird sightings, including a Jaeger.  When we reached the area off of Chatham, in the words of Scotty in the movie "Star Trek the voyage home."  "Capt. there be whales here".  The water was alive with sand lances, and all around us whales were feeding.  The humpback whales were using different methods of feeding, including bubble nets, tail slapping, and fin slapping.

Bubble Cloud

What was really unusual, there was a group of 8-10 whales working in consort to create a large bubble net and then feeding.  As the bubble nets were formed, the shearwaters, gulls, and terns would head over to it to start picking up the sand lances that were on the surface.  Because of the way the whales were positioning themselves, this year, we were able to look right down the whales throat. 

View down a Humpback's Throat with the Baleen Plates hanging

Overall on the trip, we saw around 50 to 60 humpback whales, not counting some minke whales and at least one fin whale.  Also, we had the first sighting of the year of Salt.  Salt is the first of the humpbacks to be named and was identified in 1975.  Salt is considered to be the grande dame of Stellwagon bank.  Her history can be viewed at http://www.coastalstudies.org/what-we-do/humpback-whales/salt.htm.  At one point, there were whales to the right of us, wheels to the left of us, whales in front of us and whales, behind us.  In total, we spent around 9 1/2 hours on the water and traveled approximately 150 miles, on a beautiful sunny day with some clouds and basically a smooth sea.  The New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance next excursion will be on Sunday, September 8 from 10 AM to 6 PM.  If you want a fun, informative and great day, think about joining the fall excursion http://www.necwa.org/trips.html.

Group of Humpback's feeding

Flipper slap

Salt's Tail