If you wait long enough, the whale will find you!

Friday's trip on board the Prince of Whales in Newburyport showed us a wonderful variety of what Jeffreys Ledge has to offer. We began our trip by observing a cooperative minke whale about half way between shore and the ledge. We all got some great looks at the minke, who was scooting around quite a bit, and even swam under our boat and blew bubbles on the port side!

As we approached the edge of the ledge, we got a call from our friends on another whale watch boat informing us of a large fin whale in the area. We slowed down and got some great looks at this whale that had a large notch in its dorsal fin. This whale is one that our researchers have been tracking since 1996, and has a history of sightings in other locations dating back to 1984! Although this distinctive whale does not yet have a name, it is know by the ID number "9618". We see this whale fairly frequently and would love to assign it an official name. If any of the students from the Bethlehem or Sunapee schools would like to suggest some names, we will certainly take those into consideration! Keep in mind, whale are usually named for distinctive marks, like that big notch in the dorsal fin!

As we were watching 9618 for a while, Captain Billy spotted another blow not too far away. We moved about a half mile and looked and looked. This mystery whale was not showing itself. After a few minutes of staring at quiet water, we saw a blow! It was 9618 again, seemingly following us. But then two more blows appeared. These blows were smaller in size, and we found that the whales that were under the blows were humpback whales! One of the whales went down for a dive and was gone. The other was closer to us, and as it dove, we were all excited to see its huge tail come out of the water! The distinctive markings on the underside of this little humpback whale's tail matched a whale in our catalog. It was Chickadee- the 2006 calf of Rapier! Chickadee was seen on Jeffreys Ledge last year but was not given a name until this past April! We wished we could have stayed longer to see who the other whale near Chickadee was, but the dock was calling and we had to head for home.

Thanks to the enthusiastic students, parents, teachers and family groups who accompanied us on this trip! We hope you join us again soon for another adventure to see who else is visiting the ledge this summer!