WSU09 7-13-2009

The whales have been moving all about Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary recently. Sometimes we find them on the northern end, very close to Gloucester, at other times we have to travel nearly 30 miles to the Southwest Corner of the Bank to find whales (but we ALWAYS find them). Even from the morning to the afternoon the whales can move many miles which always makes deciding exactly where is best to look for them a challenge… but that’s part of the fun!

A whale called "pinpoint" diving 7/13/2009

Whale watching, remember, is a nature trip. The animals that we are seeing are not in the confines of a zoo or aquarium, they are not in cages of pens, nor are they trained to perform certain activities on command. These whales are WILD and ENDANGERED animals that are free to roam the ocean at will. That being considered, we are VERY LUCKY to have so many of them off of our coast.

A whale called "Cajun" Feeding

Highlights over the past two day’s trips have included:

A great encounter with a whale called “Nile” and her new calf. These two whales were resting at the surface, just barely moving through the water on a glassy calm day. Their path took them directly into an area where there were large patches of seaweed (which sometimes gets washed off rocks along the shore and gathers in clumps on top of the water on calm days). Nile’s calf began playing with the seaweed by lifting in up on its nose/head, flinging it high above the water with its tail, and slapping at the seaweed with its flippers. Young whales, just like the young of any mammal, have a keen sense of play which is important for exercising growing bones and muscles as well as building body awareness and coordination.

"Nile's" calf swimming upside-down through a patch of seaweed!

"Nile" and calf playing with seaweed

At one point Nile herself joined in the play by lifting her long, white side flipper in the air and pounding it at the surface (a behavior called “flipper-slapping”). It seems as if her calf’s playful nature was infectious!

"Nile" flipper-slapping

Another great encounter (from today. July 13, 2009) was with a very well known whale called “Cajun” who was feeding. At one point Cajun dove on our port (left) side and then came up “kick-feeding” on our Starboard (right) side. We got a great look at Cajun as she surfaced open-mouth right alongside! This was not the only really great look we have got at Cajun recently. She is one of our most frequently spotted whales and certainly one of our favorites.

"Cajun" feeding

Finally a very special encounter with “lavaliere” and calf… well more with the calf that lavaliere herself. Today (again July 13, 2009) we saw this calf breach (jump out of the water) 17 times! What an amazing display of surface activity from this whale! This little calf also did a few tail breaches and flipper slapped a bit. I was driving the boat as well as trying to take pictures so I missed A LOT of good shots… but did manage a few decent ones as well and you can see them here.

So that’s what the whales have been up to over the past few days. More so than ever each trip is unique. Sometimes we are seeing feeding, at other times breaching or other surface activities, and sometimes the whales are simply traveling from one part of the Bank to another. We are just lucky to have them here so consistently… and now the weather has been sunny too!

MORE PHOTOS FROM JULY 2009. ALL TAKEN FROM THE 7 SEAS WHALE WATCH BOAT "PRIVATEER IV"

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All photos on this page were taken aboard the 7 Seas Whale Watch boat "Privateer IV"

Some of the BEST photographs on this site were taken aboard our whale watching trips 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