Our opening weekend of the 2010 Whale Watch season did not disappoint. My first day back on board the boat was Sunday, May 23rd, with much anticipation of what and who I might see. We traveled to a deep water area of Jeffrey's Ledge where whales were found on Saturday and after searching the area for a short while, I found my first whale of the season...an adult Humpback whale named Sickle. It felt great to be back on the water. After spending some time with Sickle, we spotted another spout from a differetnt whale, not to far away from where Sickle was, so we decided to go investigate. The other whale was lunging through the water after food and we originally thought it was an adult fin whale, but, to our surprise, it was an adult Sei whale! This species of baleen whale is similar to the larger fin whale. Two distinct differences tell these 2 species apart. The shape of the dorsal fin, and the symmetrical coloring of the whale along both sides of it's body. Below, you can see a photo of the hooked dorsal fin along the whales back. This was definitely a Sei whale!
We were amazed to see this species of whale so early in the season. They are a rare sight, but what made it even more special was the feeding behavior we witnessed from this whale. This whale would roll on it's side with ease with it's mouth wide open taking in lots of plankton along the water's surface. After repeating this several times, it would then skim feed along the surface showing all of us on board the several hundred baleen plates it uses to help strain salt water from it's mouth. If you look closely, you can even see it's eye!
It was a spectacular sight and one I will not forget! We ended our whale watch with a sighting of a large basking shark. It cruised by the boat several times letting all of us see it's large mouth open along the surface, also taking advantage of all the plankton. What a great day it was and I look forward to a summer season full of surprises!
We were amazed to see this species of whale so early in the season. They are a rare sight, but what made it even more special was the feeding behavior we witnessed from this whale. This whale would roll on it's side with ease with it's mouth wide open taking in lots of plankton along the water's surface. After repeating this several times, it would then skim feed along the surface showing all of us on board the several hundred baleen plates it uses to help strain salt water from it's mouth. If you look closely, you can even see it's eye!
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3 comments:
Good you have enjoyed there????
What a great way to get your readers to yearn for a whale watch! Looks like 2010 season is off to a great start. Could it surpass 2009?
Steve, thanks for your comments! We can only hope that 2009 will surpass 2010 - what an amazing season THAT would be!
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