Grand Slam on the Atlantic Queen!

Double Lunge!
(Humpbacks Chromosome and Tripod)

Just returned from my trip on the Atlantic Queen. What a fantastic day! I haven't been on the boat in awhile so I was thrilled to get out and see what everyone else has been experiencing recently! I am even happier to report that we experienced what we call here a grand slam - 4 species in one trip!

Fin Whale

We started out with a trio of fin whales traveling together through calm, blue seas - a great way to start the trip! We then moved on to see Quote, a 26-year old female humpback whale.

Quote

Then we saw some splashing in the distance, and moved on to find some Atlantic white-sided dolphins - and 2 "logging" humpbacks! In my 15 years of whale watching, I've never seen this sight - 2 humpback whales resting while about 10 dolphins milled around, almost like they were waiting to see what the humpbacks were going to do next. With the help of our Research Coordinator, Dianna Schulte, we've identified these whales as two females - Valley, a humpback first seen in 1985 and Tornado, who was born in 1988 and just had a calf last year.

Resting Humpbacks
Valley (left) and Tornado (right)

Next we moved on to a pair of humpbacks who've been seen a lot lately, Chromosome and Tripod, who were pretty mellow but then a couple times blew a huge bubble cloud under water and then came up through it simultaneously, both with mouths wide open! All I remember is looking up and seeing row upon row of baleen right in front of us. Pretty cool. We also saw 2 minkes during the trip, and there were several blows in the distance we never got to - so plenty of whales around!

Tripod

Chromosome

Lots of birds around, too - Wilson's storm petrels, greater and sooty shearwaters, and a random gannet or two!

Tuesday's Trip on the Prince of Whales

As the clouds rolled in and a few sprinkles fell, the whales continued to eat. The thought of how much fish is around Jeffreys Ledge still baffles me. Finback whales can eat 2-3 tons of fish per day, and we had 6 of them in the area, mostly all feeding at the surface. We also saw the hungry humpback, Tigris, surface feeding too! Humpbacks eat 1-1.5 tons of fish per day! Minke whales were scooting about as well! Jeffreys Ledge is alive and well- so wonderful to see after several years with huge herring fishing boats in the area which took away massive amounts of the herring from the whales dinner table! Fortunately for the whales, these boats are now restricted in where they can fish during the summer whale feeding season!

During our trip, our friends on the Granite State swung by to visit with Tigris as well. Tigris was feeding, but not using the typical bubble clouds that we often see on the surface before the whale comes crashing through the surface waters. This made for tricky photography as we had no idea where he would come up next!

The finbacks were just as unpredictable but we were able to get a few great looks at the pair that was feeding offshore! What an awesome afternoon!

Got whales?

Jeffrey's Ledge seems to be providing all of our local whale watches with plenty of animals to view! Some highlights from the day include the Humpback whale Solas who delighted our morning passengers with some great feeding behaviors. This whale was corralling fish with lots of bubble clouds and my new favorite behavior kick feeding. The amount of water a whale can displace with one quick flick of it's tail is just incredible and such a sight to witness. We also found Minke whales and Fin whales scattered throughout the Ledge this morning.

Our afternoon trip again provided us with more feeding behaviors from both Fin whales and Humpback whales. One of the fin whale we spent some time kept lunging through the water scooping up food at least half a dozen times. Tigris, a Humpback whale, was also in the area and our passengers got a chance to spend time watching this particular cetacean bubble feed. You can see in the photo some very lucky schooling fish (most likely herring or mackerel) barely missing the whales open mouth as it came to the surface. Of course the birds weren't too far away and definitely used the opportunity to catch some of those fish the whale missed. The food web was in action all over the place today!

Plankton, fish, whales and birds. . . always a good sign life is out and about on the Ledge. Look forward to seeing you and finding some animals again tomorrow.

Monday's Trip on the Prince of Whales

You can tell how successful a trip is by the tan-o-meter. Today, after I got home, I looked in the mirror and realized the sunglasses tan line was much more distinctive than it was this morning! I certainly spent more time on top of the wheel house looking at and talking about whales than on a typical trip! We had a lot to see and discuss today. Fjord, the finback whale, six humpback whales and a quick look at a minke whale kept us very busy :)

Mudskipper in particular was extremely active. We spotted this humpback whale a few miles off our bow while we were watching Fjord. He wasn't hard to spot- he breached over and over again, and then began flipper slapping. After these dramatic displays, he began to bubble feed. All of these different behaviors kept our intern, Philip, very busy with the data collection!

We continued on and passed by two more humpback whales before coming upon three more humpbacks- Flask (our good ol' buddy!), Tripod and Chromosome. These three were all deep feeding on schools of fish about 100 feet below us, and several times surfaced very close to the boat- once very unexpectedly (apologies to anyone who overheard my surprised exclaimation)!

All in all, we had a beautiful day on the ocean and thanks to all the interested passengers who came as far as Texas and Germany to see whales! Also, thanks to the local folks from Groveland and Rhode Island for your excellent questions and sincere interest!

For more information about whales, our research and how you can help or even adopt a whale, please visit our website at http://www.blueoceansociety.org/ Thanks!

Amazing Sunday on the Prince of Whales

Today was all about quality! We had good looks at two whales on this beautiful Sunday afternoon. The first was a finback whale, #0369. We hadn't seen this whale yet this summer, but it is a regular visitor to Jeffreys Ledge. After a few typical surfacings, #0369 surfaced again, but this time it was like a submarine rising from the sea! It came up without spouting, and rolled on its side, showing us its flipper and tail as it lunged through the surface water in an attempt to catch some food! Awesome!

After we left the finback, we headed to some inshore ledges and came across the humback whale named Mudskipper. This whale has been infamous for not lifting its tail when it goes down for a dive, but that was the only part of this whale that we didn't see today! Mudskipper was bubble feeding- blowing big patches of bubbles to corral the fish, and then surfacing right in the bubbles with its mouth wide open! Mudskipper did this several times, and then went down for a dive. As we were anticipating another bubble cloud to rise, we had no idea what we were about to see next. Mudskipper launched its whole body out of the water in a full breach! Amazing!! This is one big humpback! Breaching is a behavior that humpbacks are known for, but also one that we rarely get to see up close! We still don't know why whales breach. It could be for fun or a form of communication, or even to help with digestion! We still have so much to learn about these incredible animals!

As Mudskipper moved away and our time was running short, we began our trip back into Newburyport with the giddy feeling of knowing we just experienced one of nature's most dramatic displays. I don't know about you, but I can't wait to get back out there today!

More food anyone?

What a day aboard the Granite State. We started out a few miles past the Isles of Shoals with lots of bird activity and a single Fin whale in the middle of it all. When we got closer, we noticed that there were small sand sharks (dogfish) underneath the surface as well. The sharks seem to be competing with hundreds of Shearwaters for food. It was a fantastic start to our day. Once offshore near a sourthern area of Jeffrey's Ledge we found 2 Adult Humpback whales travelling together. It was Tripod and our old friend Chromosome. These 2 whales were relaxed along the surface, most likely needing a break from feeding all morning. On our way back in, we found more Fin whales lunge feeding at the surface. It still amazes me that these 60+ ton animals can turn on a dime with little to no effort. There was so much activity on our return trip back to Rye, that we were anxious to get back out there.

Our afternoon started out similar to the morning, excpet we found a single Humpback feeding in the area that the Fin whale had been in. This whale, named Mud-skippper, was first seen in 1999. Mud-skipper was quite hungry, continually making bubble clouds to help corral food. All the birds in the area were taking notice as well, including three different species of shearwaters. After enjoying some close encounters with this whale, we decided to head to Jeffrey's in search of whales we had seen earlier in the day. However, we were unable to find any of them. Just goes to show you how unpredictable nature can be. With that in mind, we decided to head a little inshore where we received reports of more whale activity. We found 2 Fin whales travelling together, not to far away from where Mud-skipper had been ealrier that afternoon. We then saw a Humpback whale surface in ther same area a few minutes later. I assumed it was mud-skipper, but to my surprise, it was not. It was my boy Flask. This is the second time I have seen him this season and he treated everyone to more bubble feeding. Working with wild animals certainly has its surprises, but that's why we love it!

Prince of Whales on Friday-Awesome!!

What a day! 17-19 whales today!! 7 humpbacks, 6 finbacks, and 4-6 minkes! Jeffreys Ledge is alive! Flask was our first humpback, then the pair- Chromosome and Tripod. From there, 4 finbacks popped up, including good ol' # 9724!! Minkes were poking out all over.

We left there and headed north, and came across the humpback and finback whale feeding frenzy!! Valley and her friend (just identified as Mudskipper) were bubble feeding together, and not far away, Quote and Sabot were doing the same thing! Huge clouds of green bubbles to confuse the fish, and then the whales were crashing right through the clouds with their mouths wide open!! Awesome! Hungry whales!! And 2 finbacks were cruising through the bait fish too! It's amazing to see these huge lunges at the surface by these whales attempting to catch some of the 2-3 tons of fish they need per day!

What an amazing day!