Wednesday's Atlantic Queen Trip

A pair of fin whales - always a great sight to see not only one, but two of these representatives of the second-largest species on Earth!

A fin whale surfaces while a gull hurries out of the way!

I'm very behind in getting this post and pics up, so I apologize! September is always one of my favorite months for whale watching, and this one has not disappointed so far! We had lots of fin whales around today, and also found one humpback, Tigris, a male who's one of our favorites of this season because we've seen him regularly for several weeks now. Best of all, these whales were all within 15 miles of shore, affording us plenty of time with them!

Right side of a fin whale, showing its white lower jaw and v-shaped chevron marking

Thanks to everyone who came on board today, I enjoyed talking with you all!

Tigris

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Tuesday on the Prince of Whales- Newburyport

Lots of activity on Jeffreys Ledge Tuesday! The variety was astounding.

We started out sightings with a large, spread out pod of Atlantic white sided dolphins! These dolphins were very "low profile", barely making a splash when they surfaced. There must have been at least 200 dolphins in the group which spread out for over a mile! Then, much to our surprise, right in the middle of the dolphin pod, we noticed a different kind of dorsal fin. It was an ocean sunfish, also called the Mola mola (scientific name)! This was our first Mola sighting all year!! Molas are the largest species of bony fish (some cartilage fish/sharks are larger) and can weigh over 1000 pounds and grow up to 10 feet in diameter! Our fish was a bit smaller, but still fun to watch.

Ocean sunfish, also called Mola mola

As we watched the dolphins and sunfish, several fin whales and a humpback whale were very close by. We spent some time with Tigris, a male humpback whale, and then tried to catch up with some of the fin whales. All the whales were seemingly behaving the same: up for just a couple breaths, and then right back down on a deep dive, making them a bit difficult to get near. We did manage to get several great looks:

Humpback named Tigris

Fin whale diving

On the way home, we encounted the dolphins again. This time they were a bit more active and seemed to enjoy playing in our wake as we left!

Atlantic white sided dolpin jumping through the wake

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Aaahhh...September....

Not sure if it’s the weather or the whales, but every year, we all look forward to September. We welcomed September with gorgeous weather and lots of whales aboard the Granite State. We had a total of 1 Harbor seal, 2 Minke whales, 1 Humpback, lots of bluefin tuna, and an astonishing 20+ Fin whales. What a day! We left the dock with clear blue skies and calm seas. We first came upon an area inshore of Jeffrey’s Ledge with about 8 Fin whales. We had 3 different pairs and a couple of single whales. Here are some photos of the one of them.

After spending quite a bit of time with several different Fin whales, we decided to explore around the Ledge. To our surprise, we came upon an area with 5 more Fin whales. As we were slowing making our way around those whales, we saw 5-6 other whales about 2 miles away along with a bunch of small splashes. We decided to check that area out to see what awaited our arrival. Well, exploring paid off. We found 5 other Fin whales, a Humpback named Tigris, and large schools of Bluefin tuna all in one area. All the whales were circling around and our fish machine was showing lots of bait under the water. We watched in amazement as schools of tuna were stunning other small fish under the water. As I was taking photos of all the tuna, I was shocked to see one of our Fin whales fill my camera lens. It lunged through the whole group taking in all the small fish that the tuna were working after. What a sight! Below, you can see the fish, tuna, and the Fin whale on its side with its mouth wide open.

This particular whale peeked my interest as it had a very distinct shape to the dorsal fin and unique markings on its left side. We use these features to tell these whales apart and I look forward to finding out who this whale is. If that wasn’t enough, Tigris decided to create a bubble cloud right under the boat. We watched as this whale fed along side us. Overall, it was a spectacular day out on Jeffrey’s. I look forward to our fall season and hope you will join us soon…

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August 31 a beautiful day on the Atlantic Queen

The sun was shining, the breezes cool,and we could see for miles and miles,we could not have asked for better conditions to watch whales. Our first stop for the day was only outside the shoals with Atlantiv white sided Dolphin, there were at least 70 in the pod, loaded with new calves and there moms . Above is the scene leaving the dolphin when they play in our wake.

Our next stop got us great looks at many fin whales, we stopped on 4 differant whales with blows in every direction. Our passenger also saw some lunge feeding and could see the beautiful color of the underside of the tail which doesn;t happen very ofter.



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Sunday's Atlantic Queen Trip

We've had calmer days on the water, but considering Saturday's weather, Sunday wasn't too bad. There's still plenty of whales around. We spent time today going back and forth between several fin whales and a couple of humpbacks. There were also several more whales in the distance.

We got great looks at the fin whales, including one whale who hung out under the surface alongside the port side of the boat, offering us great looks at its white lower jaw and beautiful chevron coloration.

I've identified one of our two humpbacks - a female named Flamingo, who was first sighted in 1997. In 1997 she was already an adult, meaning she was at least 5 years old then, making her at least in her late teens. Flamingo had her first known calf in 2007 - this calf hasn't been named yet.

Flamingo
Flamingo was likely named for the two lines on her right fluke, which look like a flamingo's legs!

We saw another humpback, this one with a less prominent fluke pattern. We haven't identified this whale yet, but will post its name here if we figure it out!

Our un-identified humpback

A fin whale's chevron, showing its marble-like coloration

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The Day of the Fin Whale

So I don't know about anyone else but when you spend the day surrounded by the second largest animal in the world I would go ahead and call that a good day, a REALLY good day!


So was the case today and what a day it was. We found 10 different Fin whales spread all throughout the ocean this morning! One of the first few whales we stopped to check out was actively feeding during a few surfacings and our passengers were thus treated to seeing a 60+ ton animal on it's side with a portion of it's tail sticking out of the water. We also got some incredible looks at a Fin whale circling around the area. This particular Fin whale pictured below is 0402, a whale first seen in 2004, and one I have only seen one other time this season in July!
As we continued further offshore we kept seeing exhalations from whales out towards the horizon. With great visibility out on the ocean today we kept spotting whales way out in the distance. Once we finally got closer we got some amazing looks at these whales as well. One of the Fin whales in the area surfaced right alongside our boat and took at least 8 breaths before it dove deeper down in the water. With so many surfacings we watched this whale as it easily moved through the water and saw the entire length of this animal just under the water. Check out the chevron pattern in this photo, it's the swirly silvery-white shading pattern seen on all Fin whales with each animal having a unique shading to it. What a magnificent look at this massive creature. The photo below is still of the same whale from the chevron pictured above but in this photo you can see the large scar beyond the dorsal fin. Granted this marking will make it easier to match up this animal to our Fin Whale Catalog but sad to think this scar most likely materialized as a result of some sort of entanglement in rope.



Our afternoon trip began just the same as the morning. We found a Fin whale a bit inshore from the Ledge. Turned out this first animal was one of the same individuals we had seen during our morning trip, thanks to photo-identification, and spent some time with this animal before moving further offshore.


We ended up in a region where we became surrounded by whales, mainly Fin whales, surfacing in all directions around the boat. Within the mix of Fin whales a Humpback whale was also cruising through the area. This whale was identified to be Leukos, a female whale. As we began to spend time with her more Fin whales kept popping up randomly, surprising all of us aboard the boat, as these sleek moving whales would surface close by and ever so gracefully disappear back under the water. It truly is a sight to witness the ease of which these huge mammals travel through the ocean.


If that wasn't enough to be thrilled with for the day as we were heading home Captain Pete spotted a bit more activity we had not yet seen at all today. We found a pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins! What a great way to wrap up an already wonderful day out on the water with 30 dolphins swimming just off the bow and in our wake. These dolphins are typically seen quite often on Jeffreys Ledge in the summer months, but for whatever reason, they have been a bit elusive this year. So it was a pleasant surprise to spend some time with these whales before we turned back towards Rye Harbor.


Thanks to all of our very inquisitive folks today. You all asked some great questions and were eager to learn more. A special thanks to Nancy and her friends who joined us this morning as she also works closely with the Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation in downtown Portsmouth at out free live Touch Tank. It was a pleasure having you on the boat again but instead of chatting with you as a Blue Ocean Intern I got a chance to share my enthusiasm for the whales over the microphone as the Naturalist. Thanks to all of our birder friends as well who continue to teach me more and more about identifying different unusual species of birds. And of course thanks to all who joined us on such a wonderful day!


Looks as though "Danny" will be interrupting our whale watching plans for this weekend but we will be out on the ocean for both trips tomorrow. I wonder what will be waiting for us to find in the morning. . . .

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Wednesday on the Atlantic Queen Out of Rye

The right side of one of the fin whales, showing its prominent marble-like chevron marking

Another great day on the water, with warm weather and sea conditions that were a tad choppy, but pretty nice overall! Still plenty of whales around. We started with a number of fin whales in the area, and one of our first ones gave us great looks alongside the port side of the boat. We could see its bright white lower jaw and it's swirly gray chevron. It's always humbling for me to see these huge animals so close!

One of the fin whales might be one that we saw in in our first year of research, 1996! This whale had a distinctively hooked dorsal fin with a notch in its back edge, likely the result of an entanglement at some point.

There were also several humpbacks around. It's late and I wanted to get this post up tonight, so here's the whales and a little about them. If you have any questions, please email them or post them in the comments section. Thanks for coming onboard today! We had a great, very enthusiastic crowd and I enjoyed speaking with and having lengthy conversations with many of you!

Leukos, a female first seen in 1980
Leukos is Greek for "light, bright, brilliant" - that makes sense with Leukos' bright white tail!

Filament, a female born in 1989
In botany, the filament is the stalk that bears the anther, the usually roundish, fuzzy, small part that bears the pollen. Filament is also a word for a finely spun thread. Her name likely came from the large black line on the left side of her fluke, combined with the other finer lines. This is one of my favorite whales. I just love the contrast in her tail.

Hornbill, likely a male, first seen in 1977
Hornbills are a type of birds with a huge, usually curved bill, usually with a bony projection on top. Honestly, after seeing this whale many times, I still don't quite get why this whale was named that, but maybe you do?

Raccoon
A male(?) with a striking tail pattern who was first seen in 1985. Presumably the white patches resemble a raccoon's "mask"

Freckles
A 23-year old female. Freckles does have a few "freckles" on her tail, but also a dorsal fin that has lots of round barnacle scars on it, which makes it appear freckled.

Hope you enjoyed the trip and we see you again soon!

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