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While today’s weather was, shall we say, less than ideal…. the whales were great! We saw lots of whales and lots of breaching! The highlight of the day was an adult male Humpback whale called “Tear” who continuously breached (leapt out of the water) for nearly 45 Minutes!

Tear breaching

While we no doubt saw more surface activity than usual today, I believe that it may have had something to do with the rough weather. When we left the dock at 1:30 this afternoon the sky was gray, rain was in the forecast for the afternoon, and the wind was blowing at 15 to 20 MPH out of the southwest. I knew that there were going to be some choppy seas out on Stellwagen Bank, but I was hoping that the whales (which are still present in large numbers!) would be active….and they were!

A VERY close breach from Tear!

Surface activity (such as breaching, tail breaching, flipper-slapping, etc) is what most whale watchers want to see. These spectacular behaviors are truly wonderful to see, however they are unpredictable. It is important to remember that these whales we are so privileged to have feeding off of our coast each summer are WILD and ENDANGERED animals! They are not in cages or pens, and they are not trained to perform certain behaviors on command for our entertainment. Whatever they are doing out there is exactly what they are supposed to be doing. Thus it is difficult to promise or predict that a certain behavior will be seen on any given trip. That being said, we have noticed over the years that more surface activity is often seen during rough weather than calm weather…especially rough weather resulting from southwest wind. Why might this be?

Tear was named for the black "Tear-drop" shape in the middle of his tail

Many different theories have been put forth to try and explain the surface activity sometimes observed in Humpback Whales. Some have suggested that it may be an aid in digestion, a way to remove parasites, or simply a form of play. Personally, I think that all of these theories have some degree of truth to them. The vast majority of the time, however, I think most whale biologists would agree that surface activity amongst Humpback whales is a non-vocal form of communication. Sound travels about 5X faster through water than it dos through air, and the sound that is produced when a whale pounds the surface of the water with its tail or flippers, or when a 45-foot, 90,000 pound animal leaps from the water and comes crashing down with a thunderous splash, no doubt travels a great distance. When one whale is active you can be certain that all the other whales in the area know EXACTLY what’s going on. In fact, it is not uncommon the see one whale get active at the surface and then see other whales begin the same activity almost as if in response!

"Tail-breach"

So how does this relate to rough weather? Well, it seems that as the sound of wind and crashing waves becomes louder at the surface that the vocalizations that the whales make (by squeezing air back and forth through their nasal passages…whales have no vocal chords) get drown out. Thus surface activity helps these whales stay in contact with one another. This is why I was hopeful that going out whale watching on such a cloudy, rains, windy day might make for a great trip. Sure everyone likes to go whale watching on calm sunny days, and sometimes we do see breaching on calm days (remember whales may breach for more than one reason). But if you REALLY want to see active whales then your best bet is to go out when most people decide to stay home (like today).

People enjoying a sunny, calm day (Sept. 10th) on the bow of the Privateer IV

When we first arrived on Stellwagen Bank we came across a mother and calf pair of Humpback Whales (“Echo” and calf) who were traveling with a third adult Humpback (a whale called “Tectonic”). As soon as we slowed the boat the calf leapt from the water only feet from the boat! Soon after we spotted an adult male Humpback whale called “Tear” breaching about ½ mile away. Seeing a full-grown whale breaching is an amazing sight so we quickly heading in that direction. Normally when whales breach they do it just once or twice and then stop, but in this case Tear breached continuously for 45 minutes stopping only occasionally to tail-breach, lob-tail, and flipper slap.

Tear photographed in the sun on Sept 10th (again, note the "Tear-drop" in the center of his tail)

So to those of you that were brave enough to go whale watching with us today… congratulations! You got to see some incredible activity. I hope you will join us for another whale watch in the future… perhaps on a calmer, sunnier day.

OTHER PHOTOS TAKEN THIS WEEK:

"Crown" tail-breaching

"Tectonic" diving

"Echo"

PS: I know I was supposed to talk about “the vital role that plankton plays in the Stellwagen Bank marine environment” this week but I wanted to talk a bit about some of the theories behind surface activity and how it related to the rough weather we had today. I promise that I will do another sightings update soon and we will talk more about the ecosystem of Stellwagen Bank that is ultimately responsible for bringing in these whales each year. Thanks!

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

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