|
2009 whale sightings reports: ________________________ 2008 WHALE SIGHTINGS REPORTS: View photographs and view sightings reports from the memorable 2008 whale watching season 2009 PELAGIC BIRD REPORTS : A new section of this site reserved just for ocean birds and birders |
2009 WHALE SIGHTINGS REPORT: July 4, 2009 Total Sightings:12 HUMPBACK WHALES, 6 FINBACK WHALES and 4 MINKE WHALES
If you remember my last sightings blog I noted that the majority of the whales were 26 or more miles south of Gloucester (on Stellwagen Bank’s southern end) but large patches of “Bait” (schooling fish that the whales eat) were being seen on the NORTHERN end of Stellwagen Bank and so I ventured a guess that we may soon see whales moving closer to Gloucester. My suspicions from my last sighting blog were correct… a good number of whales have indeed moved north on Stellwagen Bank and now 17+ Humpback whales are being seen just 12 miles from Gloucester. Today we saw a total of 17 different Humpback Whales, most of whom were feeding, along with 4-5 Finback Whales and 3-4 Minke Whales… PLUS THE SUN WAS SHINING!
Humpback Whale Lunge Feeding Highlights from today’s whale watches included a spectacular display of breaching put on by the calf of a whale called “Apex.” This little calf breached many times right along side out boat while “his” (I’m not really sure of the gender of this calf) fed with other adult Humpbacks. We also saw breaching from “Lavaliere’s” calf as well on the morning whale watch. Other than the breaching seen from the calves, feeding was the main activity observed today. The whales were feeding intensely on the abundant schooling fish in the area. We could see them blowing huge clouds of bubbles around schools of fish and then lunging to the surface with mouths wide open consuming fish as they went. As I said during my last whale sightings update, I have described Humpback whale feeding behavior many times before and rather that do it again I think that the photos (and video) taken today really speaks for itself. It’s great to have so many whales so close to Gloucester. Hopefully these sightings, and this beautiful weather, will last! Individual Humpback whales seen today included: Apex and calf Lavaliere and calf Pinpoint Kohoutek Filament Etch-a-sketch Cajun Alphorn Tornado Crown
_____________________________________________________________________________________________ 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
|
Feeding Humpback Whale
Fish jumping in an attempt to escape the feeding whales
