previous whale sightings reports:
May 15, 2008 (photographs as promised...)
JULY 30, 2008
total sightings from today's whale watches:
21 HUMPBACK WHALES, 2 FIN WHALES, 2 MINKE WHALES, and 25-30 ATLANTIC WHITE-SIDED DOLPHINS on JULY 29th!!!
"Tornado's" calf Breaching
We have had some truly
amazing whale watches over the past week. As I write this “current whale
sightings update” we are on our way in from our morning whale watch and it
was a great one! We started our whale watch this morning with an adult
Humpback Whale called “Rocker”. Rocker has been a very commonly sighted
whale recently and has often been seen feeding in the company of another
Humpback called “Pogo”. Rocker is getting to be well known as one of the
most spectacular Humpback Whales to watch feed as he begins every feeding
sequence by doing a “head breach”.
This means that
before Rocker starts to feed he will lift his entire head up out of the
water and then slam his chin down on the surface sending a huge plume of
water high into the air. We believe he does this to stun and disorient
the fish beneath the surface, Then the whale dives below the surface of
the water while emitting a steady stream of bubbles from his mouth and
blowholes. Then, a few seconds later, Rocker (and Pogo when Pogo is
feeding with Rocker) burst through the bubble cloud with their mouths open
and fish leaping everywhere. Watching any Humpback whales feed is
spectacular but Rocker, with his signature “breach feeding”, really makes
for quite a show. I have managed a few good pictures of Rocker feeding
recently because you can sometimes predict where his head breach will
happen: what you look for is a school of fish at the surface that suddenly
panics and starts leaping from the water. This is an indication that the
fish see the whale coming and are trying to escape the enormous jaws of
the whale! Just point your camera towards the frightened fish and you
might get a picture like this…..
After leaving Rocker we continued east-southeast along Stellwagen Bank and encountered many more whales including 4 mother and calf pairs (“Trident” and calf, “Isosceles” and calf, “Tornado” and calf, and 1 unknown mother and calf). One of the mother calf pairs (the only one I couldn’t identify) did a few DOUBLE_BREACHES!!!! This is when both whale, almost simultaneously, came leaping out of the water. The calves, being a little more agile than the larger adults, can sometimes completely leave the water…tail and all. These breachs often happen so fast that I am not able to drop my microphone and grab my camera in time to get a picture of it myself, but thankfully my good friend Oktay is a little quicker on the draw with his camera than I am and he managed to get the spectacular photo you see at the top of this page (Tornado’s calf). Well done Oktay!
Atlantic White-sided Dolphins on July 29, 2008
After what was an already
amazing trip we started home towards Gloucester. About half way in (only
6 miles from shore!) we encountered a group of three Humpback Whales
resting at the surface. We decided to stop for a quick look in order to
identify which individual whales they were because it is very important to
the research we help support on these animals. It is important to support
research on the whales in our area because it is only by learning more
about these whales that we can adequately protect them, their food
resources, and their fragile marine habitat. So seeing as we were so
close to Gloucester we decided to stop for a quick look. What happened
next was one of the most amazing whale encounters I have experienced in my
19 years working with 7 Seas Whale Watch.
All three adult
whales (“Putter”, “Glow-stick”, and “Jabaru”) began “playing with the
boat”. This behavior (also called “close-to-boat behavior”) is when the
whales take an interest in the boat and the people onboard. Most
experienced whale watchers agree that this is one of the most spectacular
things to witness as you can never be so close to such a large animal and
see them so well, get such true impression of their size, get SPRAYED BY
THE WHALE (and MANY of us did get sprayed today…I still smell like whale
breath as I write this!), and interact directly with a wild, endangered
animal as when they are “playing with the boat”.
It was such a calm day that you could see the entire length of all three whales beneath the surface. They often “spy hopped” which is when they turn vertical in the water and lift their heads above the surface to look at the people onboard. This close-to-boat behavior from these three whales lasted for over 20 minutes and now (remember I’m writing this while we are on our way back to Gloucester) we will be late getting in for our afternoon trip!
I can only hope the people we take out this afternoon will have such an experience. A whale watch is a nature trip and thus we never can predict or guarantee that the whales we see will exhibit any particular behavior. But as I have said before, the sheer number of whales that are present just a few miles off of Gloucester right now means there is an excellent chance that on any given day, with a little patience, you will witness some amazing sights. This was certainly the case this morning.
Here's a few more pictures of this amazing close to boat experience......
As if this wasn’t enough, the afternoon whale watch was equally as impressive, but very different! Click HERE to view my pictures and read my report of this afternoon's whale watch!
ALL PHOTOS TAKEN FROM THE 7 SEAS WHALE WATCHING BOAT PRIVATEER IV
Some of the above photos were taken by our good friend Oktay Kaya. To see more of Oktay's beautiful whale photographs and other wildlife pictures he has taken please visit his site at http://www.whalesandwhales.com