June 26 Granite State

After multiple days of being "confined" to land the winds ceased and we were able to go in search of whales once again. The surface of the water was calm as could be this morning but with the ocean having been churned up constantly over the past few days we had a good swell which some people enjoy, and others, not so much. Luckily all our passengers enjoyed the conditions and all the whales we saw this morning. In total we spotted 6 Fin whales and at least 6 Humpback whales this morning.

Two of six Fin whale spotted this morning

It seemed we couldn't go more than a few minutes before sighting another spout from a large whale wherever our travels took us! Fin whales were circling the area and many of our Humpback whales were constantly surfacing with their lower jaws bulging at the seams as they were filtering out gallons of salt water and trapping all the fish inside! We even had a few opportunities to watch these whales surface right alongside the boat filtering water as they came up and truly getting a sense of just how large these mammals are.

Close encounter with a Humpback whale as it filters water out of its mouth!

Our afternoon trip was similar in the fact that we also saw Fin whales and Humpback whales. Unfortunately it took us a bit of time to find them as we came into an area where fog had settled in. As we slowly moved through the area in hopes of relocating some, or any, of the same animals we had seen in the morning we spotted a whale just ahead! Talk about being in the right place at the right time as the next time this Humpback whale surfaced it was only feet from the boat, its mouth fully extended indicating a mouthful of lots of salt water and food!

We would have loved to stay and spend more time with this whale, but the fog continued to roll in and there were 3 other whale watching boats all converging to this known located whale! We had been fortunate enough to get such incredible looks, and with visibility decreasing by the moment, we knew it was time to move on and give this whale more space especially knowing multiple vessels were maneuvering into the area. We decided it was worth pressing our luck and going in search of better visibility and/or other whales than to stay put on a whale we had been so lucky to get such great looks at. Knowing we are visitors to these animals watery habitat we do all that we can to avoid "crowding" any whale and allow these animals to be as unaffected as possible by all who go in hopes of catching a glimpse into the lives of these enormous creatures of the sea.

In no time flat, not only had the fog lifted but we started to see other exhalations not far away! In all we saw 2 Fin whales and 2 Humpback whales this afternoon. The Fin whales appeared to be traveling through the area and not spending much time at the surface but we did get a couple nice glimpses as one passed alongside our boat during this afternoon's trip. Our other Humpback whale spent much of its time at the surface of the water and was also documented to be filtering water, indicating lots of whales actively feeding in the area. Even with the unexpected weather conditions we had a wonderful trip and a fantastic day out on Jeffreys Ledge today!


Keep in touch!Become a Fan on Facebook || Follow Us On Twitter

June 26 Prince of Whales

What an amazing trip today!!! I must say, I am lucky enough in my career to watch whales nearly every day for most of the year. Today was fantastic!!

We started off with a pair of minke whales fairly close to shore. Minkes are notorious for being difficult to get good looks at but this one proved us wrong. It surfaced to our left and kept on coming right towards our bow!

Minke Whale

Next we found a few spouts in the area. The first pair was a humpback whale named Nile, an old favorite. The whale she was with was unfamiliar though. Eventually tonight I was able to identify it as a juvenile, the 2009 calf of Ivory...yet to be named.

Nile- named for the river-shaped mark on her left fluke

We saw a second pair of humpbacks not too far away. These whales were also initially unfamiliar to us.

Soon these 2 pairs joined up and started some amazing feeding!

Humpback whale feeding- look at the water rushing out of its mouth!

The feeding we saw, with all 4 whales together and in sync, reminded me of how Pacific humpback whales feed in Alaska. I kept telling my interns, Katie and Anna, of how this these behaviors reminded me of my time working in Alaska with so many whales feeding all together.

Four humpbacks

Four feeding humpbacks

Four feeding humpbacks right under the bow!!!!!

To my great surprise, as we moved on to find some other whales, I realized one of the whales in the second pair that then started to feed "Alaska-style" was actually named Alaska!!! How cool!! And the other whale was the 2009 calf of Siphon, who we had seen last season.Alaska, a humpback whale first seen in 2009

Next we moved on (though the feeding quartet was hard to leave) and found a mother/calf pair of humpback whales!! These two were a bit elusive but eventually we got enough of a look at the mom's tail to verify that this was Sabot and her new calf. We spent a few minutes with this pair and then it was time to go home.

Sabot and calf

Thank you to all of our wonderful and enthusiastic passengers today and especially to those who contributed to our mission! Hope to see you on the water again soon.

Keep in touch!Become a Fan on Facebook || Follow Us On Twitter

June 21 and 22 aboard the Granite State

The last couple of days have proved that everyday is a new adventure...when talking about whales and New England weather. Yesterday was an ideal day to be on the water. Clear skies and calm seas made for a wonderful day. We saw many whales return for the first time this season. Our Humpback whales included Trident and her new calf, Quote's 08 calf, and Pinpoint, who was born in 2004. Our Fin whales included Braid, who has 2 large sections of propellor scar marks, showing that the whale survived a ship strike, and several others that we are currently trying to identify. We also had 2 large pods of Atlantic white sided dolphins throughout the day and they were quite active! I want to say a special thank you to a little girl who celebrated her 9th birthday aboard the boat and she adopted Flask, the humpback whale, to help celebrate her special day!

Today started out the same way as yesterday with clear skies and variable winds, making for a very nice boat ride. We welcomed more whales who returned to Jeffrey's Ledge for the first time this season, including Flicker, a Humback whale first seen in 2008, and a group of 4 Fin whales, that we are in the process of identifying.
As we made our way back to the harbor, the wind started to pick up just a little bit and clouds started to roll in. We had an afternoon trip to go on and we didn't know what to expect with the sudden change in weather. After all, New England weather always keeps us on our toes. As we left the dock for our afternoon whale watch rain started to fall. As we approached Jeffrey's ledge, we had an unexpected visitor...Fog! As the fog rolled in, we decided to shut down our engines in hopes of hearing a whale exhale above the water's surface. Whales exhale at about 300mph and it can be heard from quite a distance. We did this a few times, travelling to different areas and trying the same tactics, with no sign of any whales. We started to get discouraged, but then the fog started to lift and visibility improved greatly. Shortly after, one of our crew members spotted a blow, then another, and then another. We suddenly found ourselves surrounded by 3 adult Fin whales! As we were watching the Fin whales, we spotted a large dorsal fin above the surface of a different kind...it was a large Basking shark! As we approached the shark, it made a sharp 90 degree turn and swam underneath the boat! Even though the weather was not ideal, the whales did not disappoint. I want to thank all our hardy passengers for joining us today and not letting the weather keep them away.

Photos from the last two trips will be downloaded soon. Thank you in advance for your patience.
Keep in touch!Become a Fan on Facebook Follow Us On Twitter

June 21 Prince of Whales

Happy Summer Solstice!!
Today was a perfect day to celebrate the longest day of the year off shore! The ocean couldn't have been any more calm and there was barely a cloud in the sky.

We began our trip with a quick look at a minke whale that we passed inshore. Next we found two fin whales although they were a little bit aloof and we had a hard time getting near them.

But our patience paid off when we found (thanks to our friends on the Granite State) two humpback whales- Trident and her calf! This pair was surfacing frequently and so close by us that we had our engines shut down for quite a while. Trident is 29 this year and I am happy to see her bring yet another calf to the Gulf of Maine.

Trident and her calf

Trident's distinctive flukes

We left the pair to continue their day in peace and were excited to find a very active pod of Atlantic white sided dolphins! Although these dolphins spend the entire year within the Gulf of Maine, we only see them on about 20% of our whale watches. With the calf water we all were able to get some really fantastic looks at these animals. At some points, it seemed better than a show at Sea World!

Atlantic white sided dolphins chasing after fish

Three dolphins checking out the boat

Four dolphins slowly surfacing

We also had a couple quick glimpses at a couple of minke whales on the way home!
A truly wonderful day!




Keep in touch!Become a Fan on Facebook || Follow Us On Twitter

June 19 Prince of Whales

Happy Father's Day to all you Dads out there! Certainly it was a great day for whale watching. My colleagues have already posted their sightings of the day and it seems we were all in the same area, though saw slightly different whales. This just shows how dynamic the habitat is, with animals moving in and out all the time!

We started our day with a fin whale on "fin whale alley". This whale proved to be using the alley for traveling and it took us 3 attempts to get a nice, yet lucky, look at it.

Fin whale diving

As we approached the Ledge, we saw several blows on the horizon. Humpbacks and a few minke whales were seemingly all over the place! Interestingly, the 6+ humpback whales seemed to be all up at the surface or down on deep dives in sync. We would look around and see blows surrounding us and then a minute later see nothing at all...feast or famine! But all was great and we found a few old friends in the mix.

Gondolier, a humpback, seemed to be following us. He is the whale in the top image, diving right off our stern.

Tulip was also seen a few times (can you see her "tulip-shaped" mark on her right side?
We also found a personal favorite of mine, Satula!! Satula, first seen in 1988 lost his dorsal fin a handful of years ago, though we don't know how he lost it. He seems to be doing well in spite of his acquired injury. Satula is also one of our Adoptable Whales!

Satula

Also in the mix were Clamp and Hornbill. We have a few more images to analyze so we may learn a couple more identities in the next few days. Certainly an excellent day on the water. Thanks to all of our enthusiastic passengers for a wonderful trip! Hope to see you back soon!

Keep in touch!Become a Fan on Facebook || Follow Us On Twitter

Sunday's Atlantic Queen Trip

Satula with Cape Ann, MA in the background

It was a perfect Father's Day on the ocean!  There were probably 7 humpbacks and a couple minke whales in the area, but we spent a lot of our time with one of our favorite (and one of our adoptable!) humpbacks, Satula! Satula was first identified in 1988, and we believe he is a male. 

Satula surprised us with a few tail breaches at one point-  we're not sure why whales do this - we think sometimes they might be excited about something, or are wanting to communicate something to other whales, or maybe even they're tired of getting attention. Satula did 2 or 3 tail breaches, throwing his back end into the air, and followed this with a lobtail, keeping our interns busy sequencing his behavior.

There were a number of boats in the area, so we didn't stay with Satula much longer, but caught quick looks at two other humpbacks who have been around lately, Clamp, a female born in 1990, and Gondolier, a whale first sighted in 1992.

Clamp

Gondolier

Thanks to all who joined us today and helped support our marine conservation work, and to Grey, who won a Satula adoption kit in our daily raffle!

Keep in touch! Become a Fan on Facebook || Follow Us On Twitter

June 19 Granite State

We had two trips today and while we saw Humpback whales on both trips we ended up spending time with different animals the entire day!

This morning our whales included Hornbill, Sedge, and Satula. All three whales are adults with Hornbill being potentially the oldest of the three as he was first seen in 1977! Both Satula and Sedge were first sighted in 1988 as that was the year Sedge was seen as a calf, but Satula was not with its mother so we do not know how old this Adopt-A-Whale could be.

Satula (above) and Sedge (below). At first glance the black and white patterns of these tails look almost identical. If you look a little closer you will start to see light difference that researchers use to individually identify these animals!

Our afternoon trip took us back in the general direction from the morning but the whales had reportedly grouped together. So off we went to spend some time with the aggregation. There were least 4, potentially 5, different Humpback whales in the area all zig-zagging around making it quite the challenge to stay on one whale for any given time. We ended up getting some great looks at two of the Humpback whales, Tulip and Milkweed, in the area while more spouting could be seen in every direction from the other whales.

Tulip


Milkweed

Many times people are always amazed at how a distant, and sometimes even a close look at a whale, can give us enough information to tell our passengers who we are currently watching. Amazingly enough the whales themselves provide the clues. While most times we need to see the black and white pigmentation pattern found on the underside of a Humpback whale's tail, many times we can at least distinguish one animal from another just by looking at their dorsal fin. Check out some of the dorsal fins we saw today from our Humpback whales and how drastically different they appear.

Milkweed's pointed dorsal fin

Sedge's injured (a slice is missing out of the center of it) dorsal fin

Satula's "indented" dorsal fin, or lack of a dorsal fin

Keep in touch!Become a Fan on Facebook || Follow Us On Twitter