June 29 on the Granite State

Today was a great day to be out on the ocean. The seas were calm and with less humidity than on land it was a great little getaway. Though the weather was just a side note when it came to our sightings today. The whales yet again were wonderful.

Our morning whale watch started with a pair of Fin whales. We were able to get some close looks at both these animals and after taking photographs of their dorsal fins we were able to identify one of two animals travelling together. This Fin whale is named Streak.

You can see that whomever Streak was moving through the water with also has a uniquely shaped dorsal fin and scar marking that will definitely aid in helping to match this whale up to our Fin Whale Catalogue.

The yet-to-be identified Fin whale associated with Streak

After seeing two additional Fin whales in the area we continued on towards Jeffreys Ledge.

Thanks to our "Eagle-eyed" crew member we headed in a direction to yet another pair of exhalations out in the distance. Let us just say we were all surprised as to what we found. This pair turned out to be a different species of whale, it was a Humpback whale pair. But not 2 adults, it was a mother and her new calf! With one quick look at the adult female's dorsal fin we knew it was a new mother for us out on the Ledge. After another look at her dorsal fin we realized it was actually a completely new Mom (for the 2010 season) for the entire New England area! We had found Tripod and her 2010 calf! We were fortunate enough to see Tripod in our area a handful of times last year chowing down on the plentiful food on Jeffreys Ledge but only this morning did we realize she was pregnant the entire time we saw her in the 2009 whale watching season! Humpback whales are actually pregnant for over 11 months before they give birth to a calf in the Caribbean waters off the Dominican Republic in the winter months.

Tripod's last calf was in 2007 and are thrilled to add her to the list of mom's for the 2010 season, a number already in the mid-twenties for Humpback whales here in New England!

The excitement from our morning trip brought us back out towards Jeffreys Ledge this afternoon. However, before we even made it to the Ledge we were seeing whales. Turns out this afternoon we had another GRAND SLAM! 4 species of whales in one trip. We saw a Minke whale, 2 Fin whales, 2 Humpback whales and a pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins. Our Fin whales were a great start to our trip because not only were they different from the ones we had seen in the morning we were also able to positively identify one our whales to our catalogue. We found the Fin whale Blunt!

Blunt recieved it's name due to the "non-pointy" overall shape of this dorsal fin

Turns out Blunt was on the move, in a direction away from the Ledge(!), so we decided to let this whale continue on its journey and head back towards the Ledge. Our next sighting ended up being 2 Humpback whales.

The first whale we spent time with is the 2008 calf of a Humpback whale named Quote.

Quote is a whale that definitely frequents Jeffreys Ledge and this calf was actually sighted during one of our whale watches last season. Another year older and this whale is again back to find food. We were able to get some great looks as this whale spent some time resting just under the surface of the water while we were close by. This 2 year-old was staying quite stationary, just under the water. When necessary this whale would rise to get a breath and just as quietly sink back under the water for a few more minutes. Whales, since they are voluntary breathers, must remind themselves to breathe every so often. They are unable to sleep like us humans because we are involuntary breathers and can be doing different activities (eating, sleeping, exercising) without having to remind ourselves to take a breath. When a whale rests, it can actually shut down one side of it's brain while the other side remains alert, to remind itself to breathe every so often. It is amazing to know how these animals have adapted to a life in the water and yet still remain warm-blooded mammals just like ourselves.

Our other Humpback whale in the area was doing just about the exact opposite from Quote's 2008 calf's behavior. This whale treated our passengers to quite the number of different whale behaviors. We saw tail breaching, a few of us saw this animal leap right out of the water (which only occurred once while we were close by!), a few roll overs and even the sounds of a trumpet blow . . . all from an animal that is only a year old!!!

A tail breach from Anvil's 2009 calf

This Humpback whale is the 2009 calf of Anvil. We actually saw this whale back on June 15 this season. For whatever the reasoning behind all of this activity these behaviors were definitely a crowd-pleaser for everyone on board!

We did not think the trip could get much better but our time out on the water wasn't over yet. Thanks to our great crew we found a pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins! These whales almost appeared out of nowhere and were definitely on the move! There were about 40 of these dolphins "flying" through the water as we attempted to maintain their travel pattern to get some looks at these whales. What a phenomenal way to finish up an already incredible day on the ocean.

What will tomorrow bring? Who knows but I cannot wait to find out!

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