July 1 - Aboard the Granite State

I consider myself extremely lucky to have a job I love. As we go out everyday in search of wild animals, I am often asked by passengers if I ever get tired of it, and my answer is always, "No." I tell people that it's a surprise everyday when we look for wild animals, and while some days may be a little more challenging than others to find them, it's a new experience everytime. Today was an experience that will stay with me for quite some time. We had multiple species and multiple numbers throughout the day, and had a couple of surprises as well. This young Humpback whale decided to spend some quality time with the Granite State and after awhile we were not sure who was watching who. Today was a rare occurence, one our passengers still couldn't believe as they stepped off the boat.

A different Humpback, Anvil's 09 calf, was quite hungry today. A bubble cloud, photographed below, is one way Humpbacks feed.

The bubbles help scare fish into a tight group, allowing the whale to feed on large amounts of food.

We also had the opportunity to see close to 10 Fin whales in one area today. It's not everyday that you can say you were surrounded by the second largest animal in the world. One of the Fin whales we saw today was identified as "Blunt." This whale, photographed below, was seen for the first time in 2005.

As the day ended, I thought about all the different whales we had encountered and I will always remember to expect the unexpected!

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June 30- Prince of Whales- Newburyport

After talking with the naturalists aboard the other whale watching vessels, it sounds like we all saw similar whales yesterday! On the Prince of Whales, we found 9 fin whales, 2 humpbacks, a pod of Atlantic white sided dolphins and a quick glimpse of a minke whale!

Atlantic white sided dolphins surfing the wake

One humpback was a yearling and was seen last week- Siphon's 2009 calf. This whale should be named this fall or next spring!

Siphon's 2009 calf

We also found Quote's 2008 calf nearby. This one will also be named soon now that it is on its own!

Quote's 2008 calf

The fin whales in the area were quite impressive. They surprised us by being all over the area- some were feeding, others resting.

Blowholes of a fin whale

Near the end of our trip, we came upon a pair of fin whales. One of the two was one who we recognized by the dorsal fin shape and also the large scar on its back. This is #0518, a whale first seen in 1986.

Thanks for visiting with us! We hope you had a great day.


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June 30 Atlantic Queen Trip

Humpback whale near tuna boat

Another great day on the water. I keep saying that as we've had beautiful weather, and great whales. What a summer so far!

Had lots of fin whales around today, and then spent time with two mellow, young humpbacks!

The 2008 Calf of Quote

The 2009 Calf of Siphon

There were also lots of tuna splashing around, which always makes the trip more exciting. With tuna and whales feeding in the same area, you can really see how important the Gulf of Maine is to a variety of marine life.

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Crazy Humpback today on the Atlantic Queen!

Today was easily the best day of whale watching for me on the Atlantic Queen. A fantastic day weather wise, and a great variety of life out there. We started the day with a Minke whale who gave us some nice close looks. Further out a nice juvenile harbor seal spent some time with us. Then it was fin whale city! There were blows from these animals all around us! One of our Fin Whales came up and gave us a close approach, always amazing to be that close to the 2ND largest whale in the world. But the day continued to get even better. The pictures tell the story of a very active Humpback whale, this animal breached 19 TIMES! This behavior does not happen often so our passengers were left with an experience I hope they will never forget,I know I won't! With help from our Research Coordinator Dianna Schulte this whale is the calf of "Anvil" who was born in 2009! so roughly 16 monthes old!!Keep in touch!Become a Fan on Facebook Follow Us On Twitter

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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June 28- Prince of Whales- Newburyport

Our first whale and bird watching combo trip of the season!

Today was a truly amazing day. Even our 10-year-old intern Willy and his mom Pam who come out with us regularly said that this was the best trip they have been on! Our intern Brian got a workout collecting our behavioral data as he had to test his knowledge of the many pages of behavioral codes!

We left the Merrimack River with our birding naturalist David Larson pointing out all of the shore birds along the way- common terns, egrets, ospreys, cormorants and gulls to name a few.

As we were half way between the ledge and the mainland, near an underwater feature aptly named "Halfway", we spotted our first whale. A fin whale appeared, and though it was a bit wily, I was able to get a shot of its dorsal fin and knew it was #0520.

Fin whale #0520

As we were watching this whale, 2 others were around us in the neighborhood.

We continued on, and David was discussing the lives of the pelagic birds we were seeing- gannets, shearwaters (all 4 species!), Wilson's storm petrels, and roseate terns.

Soon, another blow appeared. A humpback surfaced and as we were waiting anxiously to see its flukes, it surprised us with a full breach! This was the first breach our crew has seen this season. Needless to say, we were all excited, and even more so to learn that this was Pixar, the 10-year-old humpback whale we saw yesterday (the same age as intern Willy!).

A report from a nearby boat came in of some more whales in the area. After a bit of searching, we found another humpback whale who was very hungry and doing a good job catching its lunch. Although we still have not identified this young whale, we did get some amazing looks at it. More than once, it surfaced under or next to the boat, giving everyone fabulous looks.

Juvenile humpback

Humpback surfacing on its side- ventral pleats extended and white flipper showing!

The behavior of choice was to surface close to us with its mouth completely full of water and fish- somewhat resembling a balloon. We also witnessed a tail breach and a few lob tails!

Tail breach

Tail lob

After spending some quality time with our engines turned off and simply observing this whale doing what comes naturally, we looked at the clock and realized we had to start our trip back to Newburyport. Willy and Taylor were showing folks our baleen and barnacle artifacts when the boat slowed down again!

This time a pod of Atlantic white sided dolphins appeared! The pod consisted of at least 30 dolphins, and they were quite active! Getting photos of these little speed demons can be difficult but they always make folks smile.
Trip Summary:
3 fin whales
2 humpback whales
30+ dolphins
510 Wilson's storm petrels
433 greater shearwaters
125 sooty shearwaters
7 Corey's shearwaters
2 Manx shearwaters
10 northern gannets
3 roseate terns
(plus all the shorebirds in and around the river)

Thanks to David for providing these excellent images of a Corey's and greater shearwaters!



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June 28th on the Granite State

We started the day with fog and were unsure of what was in store for us. As we headed to Jeffrey's Ledge, the fog started to lift, and the sky was clearing. We found 4 fin whales, 1 minke, and 1 Humpback in all. This Humpback is a young whale and we are still in the process of trying to identify who this might be.

One of our Fin whale's was identified as #9709, photographed below. You can appreciate just how big this whale really is when you notice the bird flying just above it's back.

I was not able to get clear shots, but for all our bird friends, we had a grand slam for Shearwater species, which made for a nice contrast with all the whale activity.

A speical thanks to our passengers who joined us today. Even though we started with foggy conditions, we ended with sunny skies and lots of whales to report.

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