June 8- Prince of Whales, Newburyport

Ladder! A fin whale first seen in 1984

Leaving the dock in Newburyport this morning, we had no idea how far away from home we would travel in search of whales. We headed toward the southern end of Jeffreys Ledge, just east of Cape Ann. We arrived on the ledge and still hadn't seen a whale so we kept going...and going...and going! Finally, after running 36 miles from the dock (we usually run 15-20 miles out), we spotted a few blows. At first, the 4+ whales were seemingly elusive, spending a lot of time underwater and not being predictable. Then we approached a pair of fin whales who were taking short dives and just milling about. One dorsal fin shape looked familiar to me but it was as soon as I saw the tell-tale scars on the back of the whale that I knew exactly who this whale was...LADDER!!

Ladder is one of Blue Ocean Society's Adopt-a-Whales. (http://www.blueoceansociety.org/Store/store.html) We chose Ladder to be included in this highly exclusive group because we see him almost every year, and he is known for almost always being in the company of other fin whales (fin whales are primarily solitary, forming pairs/groups occasionally). Not surprising, today he was with another whale, whose identity has yet to be determined.

Ladder's friend

Ladder has a unique scar on his back that was caused by a small boat collision. (see the image at the top of this page) He gets his name from the propeller marks, that look like the rungs of a ladder. Sadly, boats and whales collide now and then, and many whales bear evidence of this potentially deadly threat. Fortunately for Ladder, the collision just left a scar...other whales aren't nearly as lucky.

As we turned to start the long journey back to Newburyport, we passed by another pair of fin whales. This pair turned out to be a mother with her new calf! How exciting to see a new baby fin whale!!! Hope this calf will be healthy and add to the endangered population of fin whales! With the clock ticking, no time allowed for images to be taken of this pair so we hope to see them again soon to determine who the lucky new mom is!

Thanks to all of our understanding and patient passengers today including the students from Bethlehem Elementary School and Northern Essex Community College! Also many thanks to everyone who purchased note cards or sweatshirts as all proceeds from those sales benefit our whale research and educational programs directly! To make a donation, become a member or adopt a whale (including Ladder!) please visit our website www.blueoceansociety.org. Thanks!!


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Hard working interns on The Atlantic Queen

Heather Lewis and Reagan Byrne just two of our summer interns we have this summer are working together to get there time and locations on our school trip with the Ellis School from Fremont, NH. It was a beautiful day on the water, calm seas, and cool breezes! We covered alot of water today, working really hard to find a blow! We only had about 10 minutes left before we had to head back to Rye Harbor when we saw some splashing on the surface, those splashes turned out to be a small pod of Atlantic White Sided Dolphin, there were about 8-12 in the pod, they were racing through the water at really high speeds. We spent the remainder of the trip with these small toothed whales. They are so fun to observe and who doesn't love "dolphin" Thanks to the 6th graders we had today and to the 5th graders who will be going out with us tomorrow!

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A beautiful Friday on the Atlantic Queen

Thanks to our friends on the Granite State we came across a beautiful,huge Finback whale. Our day took us quite aways from Rye Harbor but we were kept very busy by our passengers from The Strafford school, 88 5th graders can make the time fly by! Our first sighting of this animal demonstrated how long fin whales can hold there breathe! He/she stayed down for 10-12 minutes in the begining then for only 6-8 minutes, as you can see from the photo we got a great close look! This whale has not been identified yet, we will leave that up to our expert research coordinator Dianna Schulte! Mother nature may not cooperate this weekend, but mark your calendars we are going out weekends and everyday begining June 19th. "Any day seeing a whale is a great day."

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Newburyport-Prince of Whales-June 4

Leaving the Merrimack River this morning, we were greeted by several harbor seals, and then dozens of northern gannets just outside the river mouth! The gannets were quite impressive. These sea birds are the largest in the area with a 6-foot wing span! They are known for diving from heights of 50 feet in an attempt to catch a fish. Above, you can see one gannet flying by (check out the black wing tips!) while two more just dove into the water!

As we arrived on Jeffreys Ledge, our friends on the Atlantic Queen passed on to us a report of a large fin whale in the area. We got a very quick glimpse of a minke whale as we headed to the deep water just west of the ledge. Our group of students from Strafford School were excellent whale observers:

With a little patience, we were able to get several nice looks at this huge fin whale!
I am still unsure of the identity of this whale but will hopefully find out soon. Or perhaps this is a new visitor and not yet cataloged! Fin whale research is exciting as very little is known about this species in spite of their huge size.

Ever looked down the blowholes of a whale? Check out this image:
Overall it was a beautiful day on the water! The weekend weather isn't looking conducive for whale watching but hopefully we will be back on the water soon!


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Granite State- June 4

This morning we headed out to Jeffreys Ledge with a great group of kids from Laconia Junior High School. Ocean conditions were IDEAL with a clear horizon and very little wind on the surface of the water; a great combination to search for marine animals!

Our time out on the Ledge did not disappoint as we found a large Fin whale for all on board. At first it appeared this animal was on the move due to the fact that during our first few looks this whale was continually moving a direction away from us. With a little luck on our side, and good timing with the whale's behavior, this animal decided to stay put and circle around a more concentrated area soon after arriving on scene. We got some great looks at this whale during one surfacing as it slowly circled nearby, letting all of us get a sense of just how large this species really is.

During our last looks, as the Fin whale arched it's back to indicate another deeper dive we were lucky enough to get a glimpse of part of a Fin whale's tail! The tips and a small portion of the tail broke the surface of the water. As quickly as the tail appeared it disappeared due to a quick flick from the whale as this animal went down into the depths of the ocean. Though brief, for those watching, it was quite exciting as often times a Fin whale does not lift any part of it's tail out of the water. One of the many reasons why whales are so fascinating to watch. No one can really predict the constant behavior of one of these 60+ton animals.

No potential ID has been made for this whale at the moment but note the unique U-shaped scar and mark halfway down the back of this Fin whale. Stay tuned as our friends aboard the Atlantic Queen II and the Prince of Whales may have spent some time with this animal as well today and possibly recognized this individual with a match from our Jeffreys Ledge Fin whale catalogue.

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Newburyport-Prince of Whales-May 30

For a holiday weekend, we had to work a little too hard to find whales today. I must admit, after many years working in the whale business, we can become a bit jaded. Most of our crew has been watching whales for all of their teenage and adult lives. We have been on literally thousands of whale watches to Jeffreys Ledge. Sometimes when we expect to find whales easily, Mother Nature humbles us with the reminder that whales are wild and are not on our time schedule.

We began our trip finding a minke whale right as we came upon the ledge. Minkes are 20-30 feet in length and can be erratic in their swimming and diving patterns. This one was great...once we figured out what it was doing. This minke was traveling in a fairly straight line to the SW. Captain Bill did a great job anticipating the whale's speed and course, giving us this lovely sighting right along side the boat:

Minke Whale Diving

We left the minke and continued on along the ledge. Reports from other whale watching and fishing boats were not favorable so we decided to explore areas that had not yet been covered. Exploring is the best way to find unique animals but can sometimes lead to what we call negative data- areas that we now know have no whales. Scientifically, this is good data since it is just as important to know where whales are AND where they are not. We were becoming discouraged and were running out of time quickly. We turned the boat to the west (toward the harbor) and were making our way back to shore when Captain Bill saw a blow from a larger whale!

This turned out to be a large fin whale (also called finback whale). Although this whale's dive times varied immensely, we were able to get a couple of decent looks at it. After downloading and enlarging the images tonight, I am ecstatic to report that this whale is a known individual and has been seen on Jeffreys Ledge before! Fin whale #0811 (sorry, no official name yet) was seen by Blue Ocean Society researchers in 2008! The unique dorsal fin shape and some body marks/scars confirmed this ID!

Fin whale # 0811

Thanks to all of our curious and understanding passengers today for your patience and dedication! We hope to see you again soon! And now we wonder what Mother Nature will bring us tomorrow :)

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Granite State May 29

The start to the holiday weekend brought out some sun and for our passengers some active sightings from 3 different species of whales. The whales were definitely on Jeffreys Ledge so the trip out took some time but the distance was well worth it!


Out first whale of the day was a massive Fin whale. This particular animal was initially travelling as we kept watching the fluke prints, the displacement of water on the surface of the ocean caused by the up/down movement from a whale's tail, steadily appear in a constant direction. After a few attempts to gauge the distance this whale kept moving, we were able to get some great looks at this almost 60ft animal cruise along the surface. After some good looks we decided to let this whale continue on it's intended course, since it was going in a direction away from the Ledge, and we wanted to continue out towards the Ledge.

After some time we started to notice quite the commotion up ahead of us. Lots of splashing, birds constantly circling overhead, gannets plunging into the water . . . we knew we had to go check out this particular region of water. Almost as soon as we altered course we saw a blow, then a another, then another! 3 whales, lots of birds, and the excitement was only just beginning.

The whales we were headed towards were all Humpback whales and were actively feeding! All on board were lucky enough to spend some time witnessing just how intricate the food web is out on Jeffreys Ledge. We had whales cooperatively feeding, making bubble clouds, and lunging up through the water catching fish and filtering out the salt water. These same fish, all herring, were also being attacked by the birds above. When the whales would coral the fish into a tight ball and come from beneath them, the fish would end up breaking the surface, at which time the gannets and seagulls would be given the opportunity to partake in such a feast. Sadly enough for the herring the whales and birds weren't the only creatures going after them. We watched a few groups of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna charge through the water, in between the feeding whales, to take advantage of the balls of bait. The large splash on the right in this photo is a Bluefin Tuna creating whitewater as is moves quickly after the herring. What a crazy, almost chaotic, spectacle! Every direction you looked there were either whales bursting vertically up through the water catching some lunch, birds picking up the leftovers and tuna scooting through it all. WOW.

To make the trip even more exciting was the fact that we saw our FIRST ADOPT-A-WHALE sighting for the 2010 season! Satula, one of the 3 Humpback whales actively feeding today, is back on Jeffreys! Satula was first sighted in 1988 and has been making many appearances to Jeffreys Ledge over the years. The crew aboard the Granite State and of course the Blue Ocean Society are all thrilled to have this animal back for another season as I know this great news has travelled quickly for all associated with this organization!

The other 2 Humpback whales seen feeding with Satula today were Highlighter and Basmati. Above, Basmati and Satula surfacing together. Below, Highlighter is surfacing just as Basmati is going on a deeper dive, thus lifting her tail. Highlighter was seen last weekend out on the Ledge and Basmati was seen last summer in these waters. It was wonderful to see these familiar whales again knowing they made it through another winter and are back on the feeding grounds obviously taking full advantage of all that Jeffreys Ledge has to offer.

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