August 17, 2012 Whale Watches

9 am and 2 pm Whale Watches - Krill 

Fluke out dive by Convict. 

9 am trip:

Here are some video clips from our morning trip today.



On the morning trip, we headed north to pick up whales we had been watching over the course of a few days on the northwest corner of Stellwagen Bank. As we got into that area, we realized that the whales had moved over the nighttime and so we headed southeast to the backside of the Cape.

Convict flipper slapping. 

We covered a lot of ground and ended up coming in late back to the dock, but it was definitely worth it. We found a few humpbacks and minkes just off Race Point Beach and were able to get some great looks at these animals.

Fluke out dive by Convict. 

Left dorsal fin of Convict. 

Left dorsal fin of Samara. 

Raw right lower jaw of Samara.

The highlight of our trip was a pair of humpback whales that were logging or resting on the surface. This pair turned out to be Convict and Samara who were floating side-by-side. As we watched, Convict rolled over and lifted his or her flipper out of the water. This gave us a great view of this appendage and we marveled at how easily this animal was able to lift this large structure out of the water.

Fluke out dive by Samara. 

Ventral tail pattern of Samara. 

At one point, both whales come over to our boat and give us a close approach. Samara even seemed to be rubbing her head on the bottom of our boat. Our captain kept the engines in neutral and we drifted with this pair. All of a sudden, Samara surfaced right under the bow of our boat. What a view for our passengers and for many on the bow, this will be a moment to remember.

We also had a great look at a minke whale who seemed to be feeding deep. Seabirds included Wilson's storm petrels, Cory's shearwaters, manx shearwaters, greater shearwaters, common terns and a juvenile Northern gannet.

2 pm trip:

Here is a video overview of our whale watch this afternoon. Enjoy!



Our captain decided to head straight to Race Point Beach for our second trip. Winds were increasing out of the southwest making it a bumpy ride offshore. Our first sighting was a single humpback whale that turned out to be a female named Midnight.

Ventral tail pattern of Midnight. 

Midnight was first seen in 1979 and has had 9 calves since that time. This season, Midnight is own her own for she does not have a calf. But by photographing and identifying mature females like Midnight, we are learning so much about the reproductive biology and potential of the humpback whale.

Close up view of satellite tag on Midnight's right flank. 

This season, Midnight was satellite tagged by researchers at the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies. You can see the satellite tag on her right flank. To learn more about this project, go to http://www.coastalstudies.org/what-we-do/humpback-whales/satellite-tagging-whales12.htm.

Convict surfacing off the bow.  

Spy hop. 

Our next sighting was a pair of humpback whales that turned out to be Samara and Convict. Both whales were very curious and came right over to our boat. One of the whales lifted its head out of the water to get a better look at the passengers onboard the boat. We call this behavior a spy hop. 

Suddenly, Samara breached out of the water just off our left stern. And then for the next 20 minutes, we watched Samara perform almost every active behavior one could expect to see from a humpback whale. We saw Samara do spinning head breaches, pull breaches, chin breaches, tail breaches, lobtailing, inverted lobtailing, flittering and more! What an amazing animal. Here are some photos I took of Samara during this trip. 

Hard to say why Samara got very active all of a sudden, but we did notice that the pair split up just as the activity started. Perhaps Samara's activity was related to this split for we often see humpbacks get more active as they join or separate from a group. Motivation in humpbacks is very difficult to determine if it can even be determined. 

2 pm Stand-by Trip: Tammy 

Today we travelled to an area called Peaked Hill which is down the backside of Cape Cod, just south of Stellwagen Bank. Once we got to this area we were lucky to find two different species: humpback whales and minke whales. 

We had quite a few humpbacks scattered throughout the area, some traveling alone and some in pairs. Most humpbacks were spending a good deal of time below the surface but we did get some excellent looks and on several occasions we saw beautiful fluke out dives. By looking at photos of the humpback flukes we did see, we were able to identify Skateboard and Northstar. 

While we were waiting for humpbacks to resurface, we had a great look at a minke whale. This was a large minke whale, but still much smaller than its cousin, the humpback.  Minkes grow to be 20-30 feet long while humpbacks can be 50 feet long.  

 

We ended our trip with some amazing aerial behavior from a 4 year old humpback whale named Samara.  We watched in amazement as Samara put on an impressive display of spinning head breaches, chin breaches, rolling and flipper slapping. What a way to end our afternoon of whale watching!

August 16, 2012 Whale Watches

9 am and 2 pm Whale Watches - Joanne

9 am Trip:

We traveled across Stellwagen Bank to the Northwest corner, our location for the last week or so.  We started our trip with a pair of adult humpback whales--Echo and Tectonic.  This pair had been in association (traveling together) for the last 24 hrs at minimum as they were seen together the day prior.  Tectonic is one of 25 humpbacks to have a satellite tag placed in it as part of a joint project being conducted over three years. Satellite-monitored radio tags have yielded important information for the conservation and management of large whales and provide far greater detail on large whale movements and habitat use than more traditional studies, and past tagging projects have revealed the existence of entirely unknown whale habitats. As such, tagging represents an important tool for the conservation of whales. However, it is not uncommon for tags to stop transmitting within days to months of deployment, and follow-up studies on the individuals have been limited.

Not far from the pair, we came across a mom and calf and were very excited to see it was Pinball and her calf. Pinball was first documented with this calf in February off Silver Bank in the Caribbean.  And she’s successfully migrated  to the Gulf of Maine with her new calf.  Thanks to modern technology, we were able to quickly tell researchers from the Silver Bank we were watching her!  We slowly started to leave the pair when they both breached—jumping right out of the water!

We continued to another association of whales, which included Sloop and calf traveling with an escort. Humpbacks are quite social and often form associations of pairs, trios or even larger groups traveling together for minutes, hours or on rarer occasions days or weeks.  Before heading back towards Plymouth, we got a quick look at Columbia (also satellite tagged this year) and a beautiful look at a finback whale.  Minkes were seen throughout the trip.

2 pm Trip:  

For the afternoon, we headed straight for the northwest corner, where we watched whales in the morning.  We came across an associated pair, Echo and Tectonic.  This pair was together in the morning as well.  Echo was first seen in 1988.  Although we don’t know her predecessors, molecular genetics tell us that she is descended from the same distant ancestors as other well-known matriarchs like Cardhu and Trident.  Echo gets her name from a series of short parallel lines on her left fluke that look like the pattern of sounds produced during echolocation.  She was seen with her first calf, Monogram, soon after its birth on Silver Bank during the Years of the North Atlantic Humpback Whale  (YONAH) project.  The pair were later re-sighted in the Gulf of Maine, marking the successful first migration of the calf.  Unfortunately, Monogram has not been re-sighted since the calf year.  Echo’s second calf, Beacon, is also known to have died in December 2004, from unknown causes.  Beacon died before she could produce any offspring of her own.  Without other female offspring, Echo’s family line can only grow very slowly.  She had calves in 2008 and 2010 and could be pregnant this summer and perhaps will bring us another calf in 2013.

 Not far from the pair, we came across a mom/calf pair--Dome and calf.  On June 22, Dome was seen entangled in fishing gear and the rescue team responded, but was not able to cut her completely free. Thankfully, she was sighted several times over the course of the next few weeks and confirmed gear free on July 27.  As we watched the pair, we got to see the calf surfing through our wake as we circled back around.  

We continued west and came across Pinball and calf, with Bolide nearby and trying to associated. The whales were very active as a result, with lots of fast movements and trumpets. Pinball did not seem to be accepting Bolide’s attempts to associated and eventually, Bolide continued on its own.

We had one more humpback come through, although we weren’t able to identify it. We saw a finback on our way home, as well as many minkes throughout our trip. Another wonderful day on the water!

August 15, 2012 Whale Watches

9 am and 2 pm Whale Watches - Krill 

9 am trip:

We headed to the southern part of Stellwagen Bank within the boundaries of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Our first sighting was a pair of humpback whales that we identified as Echo and Tectonic. This pair seemed to be taking it easy as they traveled slowly side-by-side.

Fluke out by Echo.

Raw lower jaw of Echo.

Tectonic was satellite tagged this summer through a research project by the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies. You can see the satellite tag on the left flank of Tectonic just below the dorsal fin. Captain John Naturalists are participating in the project by providing photographs and sighting data on all satellite tagged animals from this season's research activities and last season's activities. You can learn more by going to the Center's website at http://www.coastalstudies.org/what-we-do/humpback-whales/satellite-tagging.htm.

Satellite tag on left flank of Tectonic. 

Scar and satellite tag visible on left side of Tectonic. 

Tectonic with satellite tag on left flank.

Close-up of satellite tag. 

Using natural body features and pigmentation patterns, we can identify many of the humpback whales that we see offshore. And since most return to our New England waters each season to feed, we can track these individuals over the course of their lifetime and collect a lot of great data. 

Ventral tail pattern of Tectonic. 

Ventral tail pattern of Echo.

As an example, Echo is a mature female who was first seen in 1985.  She was not seen as a calf so we don’t know her year of birth and therefore, will never know her exact age.  Tectonic was also seen as a juvenile when first observed in 1997 and we have not been able to determine the sex of this individual.

Bounce and Spirit traveling side-by-side. 

After leaving this pair, we headed south and picked up a second pair of humpback whales that we identified as Bounce and Sprit.  Again we saw very relaxed and lazy behaviors as both whales were either logging (resting) at the surface or traveling slowly side-by-side.

Ventral tail pattern of Tectonic. 

Ventral tail pattern of Bounce. 

Bounce was born in 2007 to a mom named Fern so this animal is 5 years old.  As we watched this pair, Bounce got a bit active by rolling over and lifting its flipper out of the water and slapping it on the surface. 

Flippering by Bounce. 

Bounce rolling over and lifting flipper out of water. 

Bounce flipper slapping. 

This behavior is called flippering or flipper slapping and it makes a loud noise as the flipper strikes the water’s surface. This behavior can be used as a form of communication since sound travels faster in water than air. Spirit was also born in 2007 to a mom named Strike. How interesting that we have two 5 year old animals hanging out together.

Flippering by Manhattan.

Flippering by Manhattan.

2 pm trip:

Ventral pleats on belly of Manhattan.

Spinning head breach by Manhattan.

For the afternoon trip, our captain decided to head to the northwest corner of Stellwagen bank. Our first sighting was an active whale named Manhattan. This young humpback was being quite active at the surface for it was flittering and breaching repeatedly.

Spinning head breach by Manhattan.

Another spinning head breach by Manhattan.

These active behaviors give us a chance to see just how large humpback whales really are. Hard to imagine that they can jump repeatedly out of the water given their immense size and weight.

Scuffed right jaw of Manhattan.

Ventral tail pattern of Manhattan.

As we watched Manhattan, another humpback whale that we identified as Spirit came into the area and also started breaching. Breaching can be used as a form of communication among whales and other marine wildlife given the loud noise that is created when the animal falls back into the ocean. So perhaps Manhattan and Spirit were communicating with one another as both continued to breach less than 1/4 mile away from each other.

Ventral tail pattern of Cantilever.

Ventral tail pattern of Dome.  

Dome surfacing off our bow.  

Before we could head over to Spirit, a trio of humpbacks surfaced off our bow. We identified this group as Dome and calf traveling with Cantilever. Both Dome and Cantilever were feeding deep and using bubbles clouds to help them concentrate the bait. Given the age of the calf, we assume that the calf was not participating in this feeding, but instead was sticking close by mom's side waiting for her to finish so the calf could nurse.

Dome and calf traveling side-by-side. 

We finally got a chance to move over to Spirit who was still being quite active. This whale continued to breach right next to the boat. Here is a slideshow showing a sequence of photographs depicting chin breaching by Spirit.

Love to see chin breaching for you get a chance to get a good look at the head of the whale. See if the eye is open or closed?

Spirit chin breaching. 

Individual humpback whales identified include: Tectonic, Echo, Manhattan, Spirit, Pinball and calf, Cantilever, Dome and calf and Columbia. Seabirds observed include: greater shearwater and Wilson's storm petrels.