July 29, Captain's Lady III

After a couple difficult days of non-ideal weather and uncooperative whales, we decided to change things up and try our luck in another location. We headed south past Cape Ann where we heard reports about a couple of whales. Fog stayed with us along most of the way but as we approached the area, it lifted enough so we could actually look around.  Our first sighting was of an Ocean Sunfish!!! This was the first of the season for us! So fun to watch this big round fish hang out near the surface and swim right up to the boat twice!

Ocean Sunfish- courtesy of Amy Warren

Captain Chris spotted a whale off our port bow. This turned into two humpback whales- Fulcrum and her calf!!

Fulcrum and her calf

Fulcrum is very easy to identify due to the gnarly propeller injury on her back. But that didn't stop her from producing an active calf! We watched there two for a little while as the calf rolled around in the seaweed and Fulcrum spy-hopped nearby! Then the calf began to spy-hop too!

Fulcrum spy-hopping in the seaweed

Fulcrum spy-hopping near her calf

The calf spy-hopping near its mom

Fulcrum's calf

After a bit of playing in the seaweed, both Fulcrum and her calf dove. Soon we saw bubbles floating up to the surface! The pair began to feed by blowing these bubble clouds to corral the fish! And not only was Fulcrum blowing these clouds, but her calf was too! We watched as two clouds would appear side by side- one big, and the other small!  Fulcrum is a great mom- teaching her calf how to not only spy-hop, but also how to catch fish! A minke whale was seen scooting through the area but was a little too quick for a photo.

Bubble cloud

 Soon we saw another spout nearby so we left Fulcrum and her calf to check out the other whale. This was a humpback named Nile! Nile is also a female but hasn't had a calf (that we know about) since 2009. Nile was busy moving all around and at one point when we went to see her, Fulcrum and her calf popped up out of no where right near us! I guess they weren't done with us yet! We let Nile move off and stayed put while Fulcrum and her calf continued to feed.

Fulcrum's blowholes!

Fulcrum diving

Soon it was time to go so we said goodbye and made our way back home.

Fulcrum and her calf diving

This trip was a combined whale/seabird watch, but sadly for the birders, very few pelagic birds were seen today! We did see several gannets and Wilson's storm petrels, and even a guillemot near Rockport Harbor on our way back! Hopefully we'll have better bird luck on our next combo trip on August 12.


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