August 8 Granite State

Minke whales and Humpback whales were scattered around on Jeffreys Ledge today!  On the way out, on the Ledge, and during our travels home we kept seeing Minke whales pop up and circle around the area.  This morning we also got a chance to spend time with three Humpback whales.  Cajun, Crystal, and Bat where moving around the area switching between circling around and slightly changing locations all morning long.

Cajun

Crystal

Bat

Bat was most visibly doing some feeding as many times this whale would surface with a remnant of a bubble cloud rising to the surface nearby. These underwater exhalations scare fish into a tight ball, as millions of bubble pass up through the school of fish, allowing the whale to open it's large mouth and capture lots of fish with each gulp of ocean water!

This afternoon we once again got the chance to see a few of the same Humpback whales we had seen in the morning as well as more Minke whales.  Crystal and Bat were still circling around and once again were able to get some incredible looks at these adult whales!

Crystal showing us it's tail a few times this afternoon

Bat (and her big body) going on a deeper dive

Bat's tail as she heads into the depths of the ocean

Our extra special treat this afternoon occurred on our ride back towards Rye Harbor when one of our passengers spotted a group of Atlantic white-sided dolphins!  These whales were definitely cruising through the water but our patience paid off as we got some great last looks at these whales. 

A "line" of whitewater as our dolphins create quite the disturbance on the surface of the ocean

These whales ended up "surfing" down the waves coming right in towards us, swimming under the bow of the boat, and continuing to move right alongside us for a much longer time then they had previously been staying at the surface.  It was a great way to end an already very nice day out on Jeffreys Ledge.

Atlantic white-sided dolphins

Our dolphins just barely under the water

Thanks to all our passengers who searched the horizon during the whole trip, asked great questions, and enjoyed spending time with some incredible wildlife throughout our travels today!

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August 7 Atlantic Queen

It took awhile to find a whale today, but once we did, we got some great looks at a fin whale! This whale was near southern Jeffreys Ledge, right off Cape Ann. It's always great when we can see the 2nd-largest species on Earth!

Unfortunately, we also got a great look at a balloon - something we see far too often in the Gulf of Maine. Balloons can be hazardous to wildlife who can swallow them or get entangled in their strings. This sighting was a good reminder to always dispose of  balloons responsibly.

Thanks to everyone who joined us for another gorgeous day on the water!

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August 6 Atlantic Queen

It was a gorgeous day on the ocean!  But overall, a bit of a strange trip.  We were very excited to find first a fin whale (second-largest species on Earth!), then a minke whale, just east of the Isles of Shoals - both pretty close to shore, and great first sightings of the day!

Fin Whale

Minke Whale

Minke whale, with the Isles of Shoals in the background

With lots of time left in the trip, we decided to head East to look over Jeffreys Ledge. And we cruised...and cruised...and cruised... At least there were relatively cool breezes, but not a whole lot to see. We heard from our friends on the Starfish that they had found a fin whale, so we headed over to check it out.  I didn't get very many photos, but this whale looks like #0813 in our fin whale catalog - a whale that we saw in 2008, 2009, and 2010, and also earlier this season.

Fin Whale, possibly #0813

After a few looks at the fin whale, it was time to head home.  We stopped to try to get a look at a basking shark, but I think only the captain saw it before it disappeared.  At least one was out there!

We got another call from the Starfish, saying they had a small humpback whale. We were excited, then quickly weren't sure what to feel. This whale was small enough to be a calf, but its mother was nowhere in sight. It was flipper-slapping and rolling around, but sort of lethargically. So we thought at first that it might be entangled, but there wasn't any sign of fishing gear anywhere. The best we could do at that point was take as many photos as we could and document the encounter and pass along the photos to fellow researchers who might be able to identify the whale.  The whale did dive for several minutes and traveled quite a bit in between, so I'm hoping it'll be ok. It's behavior just looked a little odd for a young humpback.

Humpback whale back and dorsal

Humpback flipper

Half of the whale's fluke out of the water

This was one of those days when the trip didn't end once we reached the dock. I got home, conferred with the Starfish naturalist (Lacey Bluemel, who interned with us last year!), who had gotten closer looks to the whale and reported the sighting to the rescue team at Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies. We forwarded photos to the Center, and haven't received much more information so far. They didn't immediately recognize the whale as one of the cases they've been dealing with recently, and asked us to let them know about any future sightings.  

If we hear any  more about this young whale, we'll post it here.  Thanks to all who joined us today and for your patience as we searched for the wild animals of Jeffreys Ledge!  Congratulations to our drawing winner Beth Elstrodt - hope you enjoy your adoption of Owl!

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Prince of Whales August 6

We had a full boat today with whale watchers and bird watchers which always makes for a fun and interesting trip.  Our first fin whale of the day was traveling and staying down for long dives.  We tried our best to get good looks but this whale wanted no part of it.  When we see these behaviors we never want to interrupt there time searching for food,so we moved on.  After a long time of searching we did find a more cooperative fin whale

Fin whale # 0308"

Plastic bag

The plastic bag above was in the vicinity of a few fin whales which is always  a big concern for us.  Whales can take these bags in when feeding and it can cause them to not be able to feed by getting caught in there intestines.  Dave from The Audubon Society who was looking for birds spotted a Loggerhead turtle and the bags are even more devastating to them as they look like a jellyfish to them.

Fin whale

As we were heading back to Newburyport the expert eyes from Ryan, found us a small pod of dolphin, always a great way to end a long day of whale watching.  We traveled over 28 miles in search of whales, our captain was determined to find us whales and all of his efforts paid off!

Congratulations to Blayke from Topsfield who won our raffle today







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August 5 Granite State

We had no rain this morning but surely felt like we experienced just about every other weather phenomenon as we made our way towards, and once we got on, Jeffreys Ledge today.  We left the mainland in hazy conditions and were off in search of whales.  We made our way to an area where we had success with whale sightings yesterday afternoon and once we got to the area the haze continued and we weren't seeing any spouts from whales.  No worries as there is always a backup plan!  We started heading to an area where there were reports of whales just hours earlier.  Once we got there we found no whales, just fog!  The fog began to roll in and out as we scoured the ocean for as far as we could see before the fog engulfed the area further out.  Still no whales.  I can imagine our passengers were starting to get a bit concerned/antsy as we had been on the water for quite some time and still no whales.  Alas, our second stop was only part-one of our other plan.  We made our way to an area where there have been plenty of whales around over the course of the week and after maneuvering through the waves and fog we once again slowed the boat down and took a good look around.  Smiles of giddiness floated around the boat as our passengers heard, and saw, a spout just a bit away from us!  A Fin whale was in the area.  This animal took so many breaths while we were next to it that everyone got a great chance to see this huge whale.

Fin whale in the fog

A deeper dive and once again we began to peer through the foggy conditions.  A few moments later the fog began to clear and we started seeing further and further towards the horizon all around the boat.  Our whale had resurfaced out in the distance; this whale was on the move!  After its next surfacing we knew we would have a hard time keep up with this animal's movements through the area and since we had a lots more ocean to look at we decided to stay put.  That worked out fantastically as another Fin whale surfaced soon just off our starboard side!  This particular whale was just circling around the area giving us the opportunity to get some great looks at both sides of this whale! 

The left side (above) and right side (below) of one Fin whale we spent time with today

The longer we stayed in the area the more whale spouts we began seeing.  We had at least 5 Fin whales around and even 3 Blue sharks in the area!  A few times with the whales surfacing patterns it was a bit tricky to distinguish just which whales were surfacing where but what a great problem to have!  We were surrounded by a handful of the second largest animals on the planet!

Fin whale spout as you can even pick out this whale's flipper (green triangular-shaped object) since this whale was near the boat

In all the commotion from our Fin whales we noticed another spout, originally thinking yet another Fin whale was around, but that wasn't the case at all.  We soon saw a large tail rise above the surface.  A Humpback whale was also spending time out here.  It took a bit of time to make our way over to this other species as Fin whales kept surfacing in every which direction. 

Dingle the Fin whale was one of our many whales in the area this morning

Eventually we got a chance to see our Humpback whale which was quickly identified as Banyan, a 14 year old whale, due to its unique pigmentation pattern and massive amounts of scars throughout the tail-region of this whale. 

Distant look at Banyan

Many thanks to our passengers as your patience and excitement was truly felt during our travels today! 

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August 4 Granite State

What a beautiful day to be out on the ocean!  Wind was almost non-existent and other than a slight swell we were surrounded by calm, calm seas!  Our first stops on marine life this morning wasn't even whales, they were fish!  We certainly enjoy taking a look at anything interesting we spot throughout our travels and today was no different.  We got some great looks at an Ocean sunfish that spent time swimming around us and floating just beyond the back of the boat. 

Ocean sunfish

We love finding these fish and seeing the reactions of our passengers as they realize just how weird looking these creatures really are.  Soon we were heading further offshore and as we made our way towards some whale spouts we were seeing we stopped to look at another fish, this time a Blue shark. 

Blue shark blending in with its surrounding environment

A few whips of its tail and it sank down below our eyesight and so we moved over to the whales we were seeing.  Two Humpback whales were just "bobbing" up and down at the ocean's surface.  These two whales were napping.  Eventually they woke up just long enough to raise their tails and give us a brief look at their tails before once again returning to their napping behavior.  It was Cajun and a new visitor to Jeffreys Ledge this season; Crystal. 

Cajun

These whales were going strong resting so after a while we decided to ease our way from this pair and check out another spout we were seeing in the distance.

We made our way over to what ended up being two more Humpback whales.  While these animals were much more lively, as in not sleeping, and instead circling around the area we spent some time with this pair as we noticed a tag visible off of one of these whales.  It was a satellite tag that the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies is currently doing a project with.  Check out Humpback whale 2012 Tagging Project for more information.  Thanks to PCCS we found out our tagged whale, even though it never fluked, is a whale named Tectonic.  Our other whale swimming along with Tectonic was Bat. 

Bat raising its tail high into the air

As we spent time with this pair out in the distance we saw whale bodies above the surface.  Our original pair had most definitely woken up as they were now jumping clear out of the water!  We made our way back over to Cajun and Crystal who ended up tail-lobbing, flipper slapping, and rolling all over the place all of a sudden.  What a spectacle. 

Cajun's tail and Crystal's flipper out for all to see

Two very large whales showcasing their flippers!

Water being tossed everywhere as Cajun smacks its flipper back onto the surface!

More flippering for Crystal as Cajun surfaces for a breath of air

However, a good chuckle must be included for as soon as Cajun and Crystal stopped all their aerial activity, the next time both whales surface they were once again sleeping!

As if that activity wasn't enough we also got the chance to see an Atlantic Puffin, a group of 50 Atlantic white-sided dolphins on our way home and even a few people saw a Loggerhead turtle only 5 miles from home!

Atlantic white-sided dolphin

Life was plentiful and with the great weather we couldn't wait to get back out to Jeffreys Ledge for our afternoon trip.

This afternoon's first stop was on a group of 75 Atlantic white-sided dolphins.  These whales were definitely chasing after some food for at one point many of them started circling almost on top of each other charging down into the water each time they took a quick breath.

More dolphins!

Our friends aboard the Prince of Whales had found a few of our morning whales and with some time to venture in that direction we made our way towards the reported activity.  Once we got into the area we surveyed around to figure out just where all the whales were before we started to make our way towards any of them.  Turns out there were 5 Humpback whales in the area.  Two pairs were present and a single out in the distance.  We ended up spending time with Tectonic (still not fluking) and a very scarred-tailed whale.  This scarring is not natural and is a result of a prior entanglement in fishing gear.  Luckily this whale survived such the ordeal but clearly is a reminder of a unfortunate event and potentially tragic event in this whale's life.  This whale is Banyan and another newcomer to Jeffreys Ledge this season.

Banyan's dorsal fin (above) and tail scarring below

With a few looks at this pair we made our way to the other pair since the single Humpback whale was moving further and further offshore.  It was Cajun and Crystal again.  And guess what?  Cajun was still napping.

Crystal and Cajun "hover" just at the surface

Cajun

Crystal was a bit more awake but still not moving terribly far or fast for a Humpback whale.  What a nice way to wrap up a wonderful day out with wildlife.

Crystal

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Aug 4th Starfish

We had a beautiful day on the Starfish this afternoon! We started off our trip with a quick glance at a Minke whale on our way out. Then we encountered a great group of Atlantic White-Sided Dolphins, including some calves. The dolphins were playing in the wake of the boat, and some of them had very high jumps in the air! While we observing the dolphins, we also got some great looks at a large Blue shark, right next to the boat!

A little while later, we found two wonderful Humpback whales, of which we were able to get some fantastic looks. The whales appeared to be traveling together, and one even seemed to be consistently waiting near the surface while the other was diving deeper!

With the whale close to the surface, you can really get a great look at those long, white flippers that appear green due to all of the plankton in the water! 

Once we were able to see the flukes of these whales, we realized they were called Cajun and Crystal. Cajun has a mostly white tail, and for the passenger who was curious about her age, she was born in 1998, making her 14 years old this year!

Crystal has a much darker tail and actually has a very famous mother - she is the 1979 or 1980 calf of Salt, the first humpback whale to be named!

Thank you again to all of our attentive and interested passengers - it was a pleasure to talk to everyone and answer such great questions during the trip! We hope to see you again sometime, either on the boat or at one of our other events!

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