June 23- Prince of Whales- Newburyport

Today was the perfect day for whale watchers on the Prince of Whales. With a light load of passengers, fairly calm seas and excellent sightings, everyone had wonderful looks at three species of whales!

We began just a handful of miles off shore when we got a report from a nearby fishing boat. A couple of fin whales were in the area and as we approached one, we saw that it was Ladder- the fin whale with the propeller scar resembling a ladder! Ladder, surprisingly, was not with another whale, which is a bit unusual for him. Typically, he is seen with a friend.

Soon, a minke whale popped up in the area. Just as we were about to leave the westward-traveling minke, the whale slowed down and we got some nice close looks!

Minke whale surfacing

Soon, another fin whale showed up and then another blow was seen in the distance.

This turned out to be a small humpback whale! With a quick look at the dorsal fin, we knew who this young animal was before seeing the fluke- Siphon's calf from last year (who we saw on Monday). Today though, we got several very nice look at the flukes, which were not seen fully on Monday. Now that this whale has been seen on its own, it will be given a name this fall or next spring! Any suggestions??

Siphon's 2009 calf (note the white markings/scars on the front edge of the flukes)

Looking more closely at this whale's flukes, we noticed that the yearling humpback has significant entanglement scars on its flukes. I can't imagine being a year and a half old and already having to struggle for my life. Being a young whale, and not as strong as the adults, I am amazed that this little fighter was able to escape the entangling gear and seems healthy now. Again, many whales in the same situation do not fare as well.

Continuing on toward the Ledge, we didn't see much else so decided to head back to the inshore waters that were so productive earlier in the day. On approach, we saw some blows and then some white water. A pair of fin whales was lunge-feeding at the surface! The two huge whales circled the school of fish at a rapid speed and then lunged through the school with mouths wide open!

Two fin whales surfacing side by side

Pointy upper jaw(rostrum) of a fin whale with a second whale behind it rolling on its side!

Two fin whales lunge-feeding with mouths open!

Heading home, we passed by another fin whale who was identified as #0532- a whale first seen in 1986! How long can fin whales live? Good question....Hopefully with more years of research and observations we will be able to give you a good answer!


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Atlantic Queen June 22

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We had a hot day on the water today! It didn't takes us long to find a fun and friendly Humpback whale today, it wasn't our first whale of the day our summer intern Jenny Couture found our first whale the Minke.
This humpback never lifted it's tail (fluke) this whale did what we call a low fluke through out stay with him. We also had some Atlantic White Sided Dolphin and a Fin whale. It's going to be hot on Thursday cool off with some cool whales!!

June 22 on the Granite State

We had glass-like conditions out on the water for most of the day yesterday. Not only was this beneficial to locate whales (any sign of white water was a good indication of some sort of marine life!) during the time spent watching the whales people could look through the water to see just how large the whales were! On calm days on the ocean you can see just how much of the whale still remains under the water even when these whales come up for a breath of air.

Our first whale of the day was a large Fin whale. This animal was very relaxed. So much so we never even saw the dorsal fin! This whale would come up to breathe and ever so seamlessly disappear just under the surface again. Our crew members noticed very tiny and concentrated bubbles a few times when this whale surfaced, well behind where the dorsal fin is located, and were convinced this whale may have been so relaxed it was relieving itself of some gas. While I have never read, or heard, of a whale doing this behavior it was interesting to notice regardless of what may have really been causing those bubbles.

Our day continued on with a Basking shark sighting and Hornbill the Humpback whale.

Hornbill

During the afternoon we sighted 5 different Minke whales, 3 Fin whales, and a Humpback whale. While we were excited to see Doric, the Humpback whale still roaming around on Jeffreys Ledge, it was the Fin whales that surprised most of us. We were able to positively identify 2 out of the 3 Fin whales we found today, all of which had yet to be seen on the Ledge thus far this year!


The first Fin whale we watched during the afternoon hours was a whale named Trax. This whale was first seen in the Gulf of Maine in 1979 and thus at least 31 years old! Most of the large whales in our waters began being documented and individually identified within the last 40 years by research organizations all over the New England area. To have spent time with a whale today that has been in our catalogues for over 30 years is a incredible feat, mainly for the whale, who has continued striving in the open waters of the oceans for so many years. Even though 40 years is a long time to spend documenting whales it has not been long enough to accurately measure just how old these large whales can get. We therefore have continued to record each and every year we do get a chance to see an adult whale return to our area, adding another important piece of data to this still unsolved puzzle of the natural lifespan of large whales.

Trax, while looking quite normal on it's left side (see photo above), was so named for the propeller scars that travel along the right side of this animal. As was the case with the Fin whale Ladder (also recently sighted this year!), Trax is easily matched to our catalogue because of this scar pattern and sadly enough yet another indication of how dangerous boats can be to whales. Again, we are thankful and impressed that Trax managed to escape a tragic event with only a lasting scar as some whales are just not as lucky.


Also in our afternoon travels yesterday we saw Fin whale #9718.While this particular whale does not yet have a name, it was still an exciting sighting as this was the first spotting of this whale for us aboard the Granite State for the 2010 season. Having seen this Fin whale in years past on Jeffreys Ledge, it was great to know this animal is alive and back for yet another feeding season.


We had a great group of passengers with us yesterday and want to thank you all for your inquisitive conversations and thoughts regarding how intricately linked we all are to the world that surrounds us.


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What a day on the Atlantic Queen

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Nothing gets better than seeing an enourmous female humpback with her new calf! Since they only give birth to a single calf ever two to three years. Both mom and calf looked healthy and gave us some really nice looks. The summer sun is out and hot, the best place to be is on a boat looking for whales, come join us!

Summer is here

Today was a fantastic day on the water. If you chose to be near or on the ocean, you couldn't have picked a better day. Blue skies and clam seas gave us ideal conditions along both trips today and the whales did not disappoint. In total for the day we had several Fin whales, including #0532 and #9724. These 2 Fin whales have yet to be named. We also had a large number of Minke whales, a small pod of Atlantic White Sided Dolphins, Bluefin Tuna, Basking sharks, and several Humpback whales. Our Humpback whales included Doric, Diablo and her calf, Hornbill, and Vulture. We shared many great moments throughout today with all our passengers that joined us. For me, one of the highlights included these two basking sharks, photographed below, that were swimming along the surface of the water. The calm seas really enabled all of us on board to get an idea as to how large these sharks really are. Basking sharks are the second largest shark species in the world and we had the pleasure of seeing a few today, up close and personal.

I promise to post more photos of today's trip as soon as I can. Thank you to everyone who joined us today. Happy Summer Solstice!
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June 20 on the Granite State

As I know I am a little late in posting our trips from Sunday it was a wonderful day and one definitely worth sharing.

I always find it so intriguing how in just a few short hours life on Jeffreys Ledge can change. Our morning trip was all about the birds but we were lucky enough to have a chance to search for whales before returning back to Rye Harbor. Our searching paid off as we found 2 Fin whales in close association with each other. This pair turned out to be Ladder and the same "friend" from the day before.

Ladder pictured above and the other Fin whale below

Almost 18hrs later and these two whales were still in close company! Of course perhaps overnight these whales split off and had only recently reunited, maybe they were together the whole time, what really happened during those 18hrs? Why we may never know all the answers, what we do know, and see, is recorded on data sheets (thanks to the Blue Ocean Society's dedicated interns!) so we can hopefully continue to gain insight into the lives of these water-dwelling mammals.

The afternoon continued to expand our research efforts as we yet again saw whales but the majority of them were different from what we had seen during the morning hours out on the ocean. While we did spend some time with Doric, the Humpback whale, we also got a chance to watch 2 more Fin whales moving together. These Fin whales were a different pair from the morning, and yet not that far from where we had spent time with Ladder and friend just a few short hours ago!

The dorsal fin of one of our Fin whales. Note the scarring on the tail stock of this animal which is also present in the second photo. Those scars will definitely help in the identification process of this whale!

Though I have not yet had the chance to attempt to match this travelling pair, where did they come from, how long had they been together, how long would they continue moving with each other? Our trips out to Jeffreys Ledge gives our researchers and enthusiastic passengers the slightest glimpse into the world of whales. To be lucky enough to see one whale, let alone 2 of the largest in the world surface right alongside the boat together, is quite the jaw-dropping experience. While we hope all will continue to enjoy these gigantic creatures day in and day out, each surfacing of any whale is a step towards learning more about these mammals in the sea.

Stay tuned as Beth will be updating everyone about today's trip!

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June 21- Prince of Whales- Newburyport

Happy Summer Solstice! What an amazing Solstice it was too! Life was saturating the Ledge today...actually, we never really made it to the Ledge- most of the activity was inshore, giving us more time for watching, and less time for traveling. With flat calm seas, and barely a breeze we cruised out to an area that has been productive for the last few days. The image above show just a glimpse of the activity- birds, a fin whale surfacing, and a school of fish jumping at the surface!

That fin whale was feeding (likely on those fishes' friends) and continually circled its lunch. We got some incredible looks at this whale, who has been ID'ed as #0611 (please, suggest a name for this whale!!) based on the notches in its dorsal fin and chevron pattern behind the blowholes.

Fin whale # 0611

Here is an image of the fin whale surfacing close to us with its lower jaw expanded and completely full of fish and water!

As we continued on, our buddy Kevin found us a very nice basking shark! This was our first shark of the summer for the Prince of Whales! Basking sharks are the second largest species of shark and this particular one was about 15 feet long!

Basking shark- you can just see the tip of the shark's nose underwater, with the small white scar!

As we kept going, we came across a humpback whale! This was Doric, who was seen yesterday, and just like yesterday, Doric didn't feel the need to lift his/her flukes very often. Still we had some great looks at this 9 year old humpback!

Doric, the humpback

In the area near Doric, several fin whales were seen. Two of these were paired up and feeding, while a couple others were on their own. Here is one of them- check out the white lower jaw!! Cool!

On our way in, we stumbled upon a small pod of Atlantic white sided dolphins pictured below. These dolphins were pretty busy and kept changing directions but we were able to see their distinctive markings:








As an added bonus, we found a second humpback on the way home! This whale has not been id'ed yet but stay tuned for update! Certainly a wonderful day of wildlife viewing on the ledge today! Thanks to everyone for your enthusiasm and to Scott Middle School for coming out with us for another year!


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