previous whale sightings reports:
August 18, 2008
May 15, 2008 (photographs as promised...)
AUGUST 18, 2008
total sightings from today's whale watches:
33 HUMPBACK WHALES, 1 MINKE WHALE, and approximately 2,000 BLUEFIN TUNA
"Compass" and calf
Whale watching continues to be excellent on Stellwagen Bank. If anything, the number of whales that we are seeing on each trip has actually INCREASED over the past week! With the number of whales in the area we are, of course, having spectacular trips nearly every day with lots of surface activity and feeding activity. While seeing a certain behavior can never be guaranteed (although seeing whale certainly IS guaranteed) when you spend a few hours amongst 20, 25, or even 30+ Humpback whales the chances that one of them will either start feeding, leap from the water, or engage in any of the spectacular displays for which these whales have become so famous are pretty good!
Highlights of this past week’s whale watches include a great encounter with a mother and calf pair of Humpback whales (“Compass” and calf) who we spotted double-breaching from a distance as we approached Stellwagen bank. Both of these whales continued to be active for over 30 minutes and allowed us some VERY close looks. At one point both whales went on a deep dive just off the starboard (right) side of our whale watch boat and I readied my camera hoping to catch a photograph of a double breach (a deep dive is required for a whale to do a breach). A few seconds later the calf burst from the water and I was able to get this picture…
However as I was taking the above photo I caught out of the corner of me eye the mother (“Compass”) rocketing up from the deep only a few feet off the starboard side. The whale breached so close that I wasn’t able to fit the whole whale in the frame! It all happened very fast, but I was able to get these two photographs of this unnervingly close breach by a full-grown Humpback whale. I especially like the second photo of the splash that actually drenched a few passengers (but thankfully not my camera).
Another highlight of this past week was a
“close-to-boat” encounter with two Humpback whales, one of which we
identified as a whale called “Pinch”. This particular trip was a classic
example of how when you are on a nature
trip
PATIENCE is often the most valuable tool in seeing wonderful things. The
entire whale watch was good…we first had a group of 9 Humpback whales
traveling together, then a group of 4 (two mother and calf pairs together
actually) and we got great looks at all these whales. However they were
simply traveling and not engaging any of the other activities that you see
pictured on these “whale-sightings-updates”. It was at the very end of
the trip when we spotted a whale breaching a few miles to the east and
decided to head in that direction in hopes that the breaching activity
would continue. Usually breaching doesn’t last long…just one or two jumps
then it’s over. On rarer occasions, however, it does continue for a while
and we hoped this would be the case this time. It wasn’t. When we got
there the breaching stopped and the whale started diving for a LONG time.
While waiting for the whale to re-surface we saw a pair of Humpbacks
resting at the surface nearby and decided to take a quick look at them
before heading back to Gloucester. What we intended to be a quick look
turned into 25 minutes of the whales (“Pinch” being one of them) rolling
over next the boat, spy-hopping (lifting the head out of the water to look
at the boat), and spraying the people on board with their spouts. At one
point Pinch rolled upside down next to the boat and hung motionless in the
water for a solid minute. It was such a glassy calm day that you could
see the entire length of the whale beneath the surface.
As if that incredible close encounter wasn’t enough, after we left Pinch and associate to finally head back home we passed by a mother and calf pair of Humpback whales (“Crown” and calf) who began breaching and flipper-slapping! Notice the damage done to Crown’s flipper…this whale was unfortunately entangled in a fishing net years ago and suffered sever damage to the tail, back, and one flipper. Thankfully though the wounds have healed and Crown is a very healthy whale today.
One more special whale watch that I have to mention was a sunset whale watch that we did on Thursday, August 14th. Unfortunately we don’t get to do as many sunset whale watches as we have in the past (hint hint if the boss is reading this….) because watching whales as the sun sinks into the sea adds an element of drama that makes the whole experience (not to mention the photography) more magical. The whales behavior was actually not as active as on many of our “regular” whale watches this past week, but as you can see the setting sun and the rising moon made the trip a very memorable one.
So these are just a couple of my favorite sightings from this past week’s whale watches and I’m sure if I looked back through my notes I could come up with many more. For example I haven’t even described any of the amazing trips we have done on groups of feeding whales…sometimes 5, 6 or more whales all blowing clouds of bubbles around schools of fish then coming to the surface with mouths wide open and fish and birds flying everywhere. The whale watching has been great this past week, just as it has been all year, and I would love to go on about the sightings we have had however it is 1 o’clock and that means that it is time to board the passengers for this afternoon’s trip (August 18th) so I must hit the “publish post” button and head back out to Stellwagen Bank now. I hope the people I see waiting to come aboard know how lucky they are for whale they are about to see: wild, endangered animals in their natural habitat…that alone makes every sighting of a whale a special one. But when you get to see them breaching, feeding or close to the boat it just makes it even better. Check back soon for more updates……
CLICK HERE FOR MORE PICTURES TAKEN OVER THE PAST WEEK (August 9th-18th, 2008)
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