August 3, 2012 Whale Watches

9 am and 2 pm Whale Watches - Krill 

9 am trip: blog written by Krill 

Here is a slideshow of images of Putter doing a spinning head breach as he heads right for our boat!

Putter settled down a bit and started lobtailing. This behavior involves lifting the fluke high out of the water and then smashing it on the surface. It makes a loud noise so perhaps it has something to do with communication. But determining the motivation of a behavior can be difficult, if not impossible. But they are fun to watch, especially these active behaviors. In between the lobtailing, Putter rolled over and would lift his flipper out of the water in a behavior called flippering or flipper slapping.

Putter flipper slapping. 

Here is a sequence of Putter doing a different kind of breach called a chin breach. Can you see why this behavior got that name?




After leaving Putter, we moved closer to Race Point and picked up at least 10 to 15 humpback whales that started surface feeding all around out vessel. What fun it was to watch these animals lunging quickly at the surface as they tried to catch as much fish as possible.

Humpback whales seen today included: Putter, Pharos, Elephant, Samara, Pogo, Fracture, Windrose, Lariat, and Reflection. We also had a few minke whales in the area as well as some amazing seabirds (Cory's shearwater, sooty shearwater, greater shearwater, manx shearwater), Wilson's storm petrel and laughing gulls.

Ventral tail pattern of Fracture. 

2 pm trip: blog report written by Krill 

Here are some video clips of the feeding humpbacks that we watched on this afternoons trip. Enjoy!

Reflection surfacing fast!

We headed back to Race Point and found quite a few humpbacks and minkes in the area. Most of the animals were traveling through the area, with no indication of feeding at the surface. Then suddenly, something happened and many of the humpbacks started feeding surface feeding alone or in small groups. It was as if someone turned the light on!

Snare fluking out.

As the humpbacks pushed the baitfish to the surface using bubble nets, the seabirds flocked to each feeding whale in an attempt to get some lunch! Watch the slideshow below of a greater shearwater that catches a sandlance and then loses it at the last moment. The shearwater then puts its head under the water to see if he/she can find it again. Poor thing! All that work for nothing!

It was great fun to see the different feeding styles and strategies being used by humpbacks that were all drawn to the area. But the showiest of feeding styles has to be kick feeding, hands down, for this behavior always produces a huge splash!

Ganesh kick feeding. 

Ganesh surfacing mouth open through the bubbles. 

More and more whales moved into the area. Hard to know what triggers these feeding sessions or bouts, but at least 15 humpbacks were feeding all around the boat! Feeding styles varied and it was fun to see the different techniques.

The star of the show today was a female named Reflection. She would kick 3 times before going down and creating a bubble net.  Then she would lunge mouth open at the surface. We can identify Reflection and other individual humpbacks using features and marks on the body. Identifying individuals over the course of the season and from one season to another has allowed us to amass a large database on these endangered animals. 

As an example, Reflection was first seen in 1992 and since that time has had 3 calves. She is one of the mom's that has taught us that moms have a single calf typically every 2 to 3 years. Mom takes full care of the calf and provides much of its nutrition the first year of its life. Once the calf leaves mom's side, the calf returns to the same feeding areas that mom introduced them their first year of life. So we are able to watch these animals grow up as they return to feed off New England each season. How cool is that!

We were able to identify 14 humpbacks so far including: Reflection, Ganesh, Sprinker, Snare, Pharos, Springboard, Putter, Pleats, Epee, Palette and calf, Tunguska, Lariat and Windrose. 

August 2, 2012 Whale Watches

9am and 2pm Whale Watches - Joanne
10am Whale Watch - Diane

9 am Trip: 

Beautiful morning offshore, with whales spread throughout the southwest corner of Stellwagen, all traveling in groups—pairs and trios.  We began with a pair which include to mature whales—Pumba and Pele. Side by side they traveled, indicated perhaps some deeper feeding. Raising their flukes high out of the water with each dive.

Nearby, we had a trio of humpbacks—Snowslide, Jupiter and Storm—which have been associated for quite some time this summer.  The trio and pair kept crossing paths, both groups indicated from their dive patterns and dive times they were likely feeding deeper in the water column.

Soon, Northstar and Convict moved through the area.  Convict has a very distinct dorsal fin and ‘rake’ marks which earned the name convict for the cells on a prison bar.  Nearby this pair, we had another trio—Palette and calf along with Bounce. Palette’s calf was seen getting hit by a small boat days earlier and thankfully only wears small scars ahead of the dorsal fin indicated such occurred. 

The highlight of the trip was several of the associated groups coming right over to our drifting boat and giving us a curious approach!  Swimming right towards and under us—amazing!

2 pm Trip:

We headed back to the southwest corner of Stellwagen and started with a humpback whale named Pumpkinseed, which was traveling alone. One of the few whales seen today not associated with others.

We ended up with a trio in the same area which was quite curious again, and came towards us, including Tunicate who was rolling over, showing us the rorqual grooves and flipper and eye.  Tunicate was traveling with Convict and Basin, a different association than earlier in the day.  Humpbacks are quite social and associations typically only last a short period of time.

We continued on and got to spend time with Snowslide and friends with some fantastic spyhopping from two of the whales in the trio.  The whales raised their heads out of the water, giving us an excellent view of the tubercles (each with a cat like whisker in it that helps them detect sensory information about their environment).

We picked up a few more humpbacks, including Sprinkler and Snare, along with minke whales which were giving us unusually good looks.  Another incredible day offshore aboard the Tails of the Sea!

10 am Trip: Diane

It's a hazy, hot and humid day and a great day to get off the dock with my group from Falmouth.  These kids were so excited and they brought me a beautiful t-shirt from the Falmouth Recreation Dept!

Our first encounter was with two humpbacks that were traveling together.  We had some beautiful close approaches to the boat and the whales were people watching as well!  Our kids were very happy to see these creatures up close and to compare their size to the boat.  After staying with these whales we noticed two blows to the north and headed their way.  

One of these humpbacks gave us quite a show with flipper slapping and rolling but the heat today seemed to be making all our whales a little lazy.  We watched some logging behavior until they woke up again and began to flipper slap some more.  The whales today seemed to be keeping a low profile but I believe one of the whales was Jupiter and another might have been Ventisca.  We had a great time and I look forward to next year’s kids from Falmouth! 

August 1, 2012 Whale Watches

9am and 2pm Whale Watches - Leah and Krill


9 am Trip: Leah

Ampersand

2 pm Trip: Krill

Ampersand and Epee. 

We had a great afternoon offshore as we watched over 15 humpback whales on the southwest corner of Stellwagen Bank. Our first sighting was a trio of humpbacks that included Pogo, Fracture and Barb. Pogo was recently satellite tagged by the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies (PCCS). You can learn more about this project by going to their website at http://www.coastalstudies.org/what-we-do/humpback-whales/satellite-tagging-whales12.htm.

Ampersand and Epee.

Captain John naturalists take photos of each tagged whale and send this information to researchers at PCCS to help them with this study. Nice to know that Captain John's is supporting research and conservation by having marine biologists as naturalist who collect sighting data and photographs to support such projects.

Satellite tag on Ampersand's left dorsal fin. 

Satellite tag on Ampersand's left dorsal fin. 

Our next sighting was a pair of humpbacks that included Ampersand and Epee. Ampersand was also recently satellite tagged, but this tag is on the left dorsal fin. Both animals were taking it easy as they logged (rested) on the surface. As we watched this pair, two more whales joined them and things got more active. We soon realize that Soot and Springboard were the newcomers and they all seemed to be quite excited about the meeting.

Lobtailing by Ampersand. 

But as soon as this foursome was created, it ended as both pairs slowly moved away. Associations with any baleen whale is quite temporary probably because these animals have to eat such large amounts of food each and every day. But nice to see these types of associations offshore.

Spinning head breach by Ampersand.

Lobtailing by Ampersand. 

We sighted a few more single humpbacks in the area and then saw breaching to the southwest of us. As we moved in that direction, we realized that we once again had Ampersand and Epee, but this time they were breaching out of the water.

Chin breach by Ampersand. 

As Ampersand did a spinning head breach, Epee followed in suite. What an incredible sight! Double Breach! Watch this slideshow of this pair in action!



Ampersand continued to be quite active by lobtailing and then rolling over to perform inverted lobtailing.

Lobtailing by Ampersand. 

We finished our trip with another pair that included Fracture and Pogo. Pogo was also recently satellite tagged so we photographed the tag on the animal's left flank.

July 31, 2012 Whale Watches

9 am and 2 pm Whale Watches - Tammy and Krill

9 am trip: Krill

Here is some video from our morning trip. Enjoy, Krill.

Ventral tail pattern of Colt. 

We headed towards Race Point to try and pick up some of the humbpacks that we have been watching off those shores for the past week or two. As we approached our first humpback, we noticed that the animal had an old satellite tag wound on its right side, just below the dorsal fin. As we waited for the animal to return to the surface, we had a feeling that this was an old friend, named Colt.

Old satellite tag wound on Colt. 

Colt surfacing right under the port side. 

Colt has a reputation of "mugging up" to boats and boy did Colt live up to his reputation today. Before we knew what was happening, Colt surfaced right off the port side of the boat and got everyone wet with his spray.

Spyhop by Colt.

Close approach by Colt. 

Then he moved under the bow and christened all the people who were standing on the pulpit. Colt stayed with us for a few minutes and then moved on. Always wonderful to see an old friend like Colt who was born in 1981 to a mother named Equis. Colt is now 31 years old and it doesn't seem like he has mellowed out any. But we love him!

Satellite tag on the left dorsal fin of Ampersand. 

Satellite tag on the left dorsal of Ampersand. 

Ampersand. 

As we headed further down the backside of the Cape, we picked up a pair of humpbacks that we identified as Ampersand and Windrose. Ampersand has recently been tagged on left dorsal. She is the daughter of a whale named Buckshoot and was born in 1986. The tagging program is being spearheaded by the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies and you can learn more by checking their website at http://www.coastalstudies.org/what-we-do/humpback-whales/satellite-tagging.htm.

Snowslide, Storm and Jupiter.

Snowslide fluking out.

We then picked up a trio of humpback whales that included Storm, Snowslide and Jupiter. This group of young humpbacks has been staying together for over a week now. As they surfaced forcefully and only stayed up for a few breaths, we had a feeling that this group was feeding deep. We watched this trio for a number of surfacings and then continued on our journey.

We picked up a few more single humbpacks that seemed to be traveling through the area. These singles included Basin and Northstar. We had great looks at seabirds including the Wilson's storm petrel, the greater shearwater, the sooty shearwater, the Cory's shearwater and the manx shearwater. We also had laughing gulls and common terns in the area feeding at the surface alongside small bluefin tuna.

2 pm trip: Tammy

This afternoon we traveled down the backside of the Cape, just off the southern edge of Stellwagen Bank. We were lucky to find quite a few humpback and minke whales. Our first sightings included two pairs of humpback whales and a single humpback in the same area.  As we slowly made our way into the area, the single humpback whale did a single spinning head breach and then started lobtailing, or slapping its tail on the surface. 

The pair of humpbacks, identified as Springboard and Tunguska, was travelling on the opposite side of our boat when Tunguska was suddenly airborne! This adult whale did a spectacular spinning head breach less than a boat length away from us.  We also had a good look at Tunguska’s satellite tag on his right flank (red arrow in photo above). Tunguska was recently tagged as part of a satellite tagging project being conducted by the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies (PCCS) and other collaborators. The objectives of this study are to improve tag technology and to evaluate how the tags impact the whales. We will be sending our photos of Tunguska to PCCS to contribute to this study’s data. 

The second pair of humpback whales included a whale named Putter. We watched as a bubble net started to form and we thought we might see some surface feeding. The whales may have been feeding but it must have been deeper in the water column for we did not see it. We did have beautiful looks at Putter as this whale raised its flukes high out of the water. Interestingly, Putter was satellite tagged last year as part of the same study. We will also be sending in photos of Putter to PCCS so they can learn more about how tag sites heal. We ended our trip with great looks at another humpback pair, Barb (tagged last year) and Ampersand (tagged this year).