August 6- Prince of Whales- Newburyport

Fin whale #9721- first seen in 1997!

As the summer progresses, I am reminded daily of my place in the world- the marine world in particular. Venturing out into the Gulf of Maine, an area of the Atlantic Ocean that is 33,000 square miles of water, it still amazes me that we can locate whales on the vast majority of our trips. Whales move around quite a bit and today was the perfect example of that.

The morning trip brought us to an area that has been very good to us lately. There, we found a cooperative pair of fin whales, including a whale who has only been seen on Jeffreys Ledge in 1997 and 2006, as well as a third fin whale in the area.Chevron and dorsal fin of the fin whale traveling with #9721- hopefully I will ID this whale soon, or perhaps it is a new whale!

This pair surfaced several times right along side the boat, giving all of our passengers a magnificent view of two of the second-to-largest animals EVER to live on the planet. I've said it before and I will say it again. Fin whales are AWESOME! I was surprised to hear from our intern, Heather, that many of our passengers don't think we'll see a fin whale. Is that because they are so huge or because they have never heard of such a whale before? We see fin whales on 70-75% of our trips in an average season!

For our afternoon trip, we ventured right back to where we saw the fin whales in the morning. As we approached the same area, we found a completely different whale, and the fin whales were no where to be found!

The whale we found first was Mars! I have never seen this whale before but knew of her from her catalog images. She was first seen in 1979 and has had at least 8 calves that we know about. Mars has been through a lot in her lifetime and her body is proof of that. Many scars, bumps and markings adorn her body. The most obvious scars are the result of an entanglement, likely in fishing gear. A deep cut was made near the base of her tail, and her flukes themselves are mis-shaped due to the entanglement cutting into her flukes. Mars is a survivor who has experienced a lot in her lifetime and is a living reminder of the daily challenges that these endangered whales face.

Mars' dorsal fin, scars and mis-shaped flukes

Soon after leaving Mars, we found a dynamic pod of Atlantic white sided dolphins! We have been extremely lucky with our dolphin sightings this year as we have seen them on approximately 40% of our trips so far. In a typical season, we see them on 20% of our trips! This pod was made up of huge males, females with brand-new calves, and others, all of whom were curious about our boat and quite playful!

Dolphin jumping in our wake!

Being surrounded by several endangered whales about 30 miles offshore today really makes me think about my life and how the challenges that I think I face on a daily basis are in no way anywhere close to the challenges that these whales are facing and have faced in past years. Every day is a new chance for us all to experience and appreciate whales for their natural, and inherent beauty.

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