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/

The First Whale Watch of the Season

Northern Gannet

On Mother's Day, I took part of the family on the first whale watch of the year on Son IV Run by Plymouth Whale Watching.  It turned out to be a beautiful day on the water, sunny, with some light cirrus clouds and slight to moderate winds.  The boat was filled to capacity, which at times made it hard to photograph unless you were in the right spot because of the number of people lining the rail.  After leaving Plymouth Harbor and approaching the Gurnet.  We came across our first whales, active right whales.  Another good difficulty in photographing these whales, was the law which prevented approaching any closer than 500 yards to a right whale because of they are severely endangered and the speed of the boat must be decreased to 10 kn.  After this we traveled slowly up to Provincetown where off of Race Point.  We encountered both fin whales and humpback whales.  Both species were in the movement mode rather than the feeding mode.  There were a number of northern Gannet's flying around also.  Coming back again at the Gurnet area.  We saw right whales feeding.  In all, it was a wonderful day and enjoyed by everyone.

Right Whale Fluke on a Dive

Right Whale Tail Slapping

Right Whale Feeding

Fin Whale

Humpback Whale

Humpback Whale on a Dive

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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

Seabird & Whale Tales

The Sunday prior to me leaving for Churchill, I went on one of the two semi annual all-day Marine Adventure cruises that the New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance runs. These trips are called Seabird & Whale Tales and are a fundraiser for the alliance. The trips offer a full day a wildlife viewing and education. There are  guest naturalist onboard that help in identifying the birds, the whales and other wildlife that are observed.
The trips leave from Plymouth Harbor aboard the "Tales of the Sea", a 110 foot commercial whale-watching vessel operated by Capt. John Whale Watching and Fishing Tours.

Plymouth Beach in the fog

We started the day out in fog and and rain, the rain cleared by 10 AM, but we had intermittent fog all day long. The seas initially were 3 to 5 feet, but later in the day when up to 10 feet plus. The captain kept the ride as smooth as possible, when we had to make a turn want to hold on and there were no injuries.


Fin Whale



Fin Whale



Gray Seal



Great Shearwater

Northern Gannet



Sooty Shearwater

Sooty Shearwater

We observed fin whales, humpback whales, minke whales and both harbor and gray seals. Birds included all the shearwaters, northern gannets, many of the gulls and a South Polar Skua. I was not able to obtain a picture of the Skua since I was in the front of the boat and was hanging on during our multiple turns as the captain followed the bird so everybody could obtain a good view of it.

Humback Tail breach

Humpback

Humpback

Humpback Dive



Flipper Slap



Fluke

Feeding

Head of Humpback you can see its eye

Tail Breach

As usual the humpback whales put on a great show with tail breaching, flipper slapping, feeding and other activities.
For those of you who are interested in the natural history of Cape Cod Bay and Stellwagon Bank Marine National Sanctuary, I would recommend that you sign up for one of the Seabird and Whale Tale trips. The next trip will be September 11. To find out more information click on the New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance website http://www.necwa.org/trips.html

Whale Watching

I have been going out on whale watches for at least the past 30 years. And I still get a thrill seeing the whales. Most of my whale watching has been out to the Stellwagon National Marine Sanctuary, but I have whale watched on a 27 foot zodiac in Newfoundland and off the boats and the Pacific. As you people who have read my blog, know that I went this past January on a 12 day trip from San Diego down into the Baja following the whales. There in the Baja I had my closest encounter with whales, having the ability to pat a gray whale in Laguna San Ignacio.
I have taken my boys out on will watches and I have taken also some of my grandchildren. My son and grandson are in visiting from England and I just took them out for a whale watch. This was the first time that my grandson had a chance to see the whales.

We took the trip out of Plymouth Massachusetts on the Captain John Boat.
 
 
 
 
 
Prior to leaving,, we walked around the harbor and looked at the common terns and laughing gulls in the area.

Even a Starling posed for its picture.
The day was somewhat cool, it started out sunny and the further we got out into Cape Cod Bay it became cloudy and the seas somewhat rougher. We passed between Plymouth Long Beach and Gurnet Light on Duxbury Beach.
For the first 2 1/2 hours any sightings were very minimal. There were a few gulls and nothing else. We came across another whale watching boat who was observing a fin whale and we were also able to see the fin whale.
It was getting late in the trip, and suddenly activity occurred, it was a breaching humpback whale. A mother and calf humpback whale were in the vicinity and we were treated to observing the whales diving and breaching. Every one on the trip was excited, even me although I have seen this many times in the past. It is always a treat.

If you have never gone on a whale watch, you should at least try to go on one. You do have to remember that whales are wild creatures and you never know what you will see or what activities they would be doing.
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