Today we found whales much closer to Gloucester than we have been finding them for the past few weeks.  Rather that traveling 30 miles, today we only had to go 17 miles before we found 3 mother and calf pairs of Humpback whales plus at least 2 other Humpbacks (although I’m almost certain there was a third whale in the area). Also worth noting is that a fourth mother and pair was seen in the morning (“Perseid” and calf) but I was only on in the afternoon so I didn’t include them in this sightings update.

The three mother and calf pairs we saw were “Compass” and calf, “Quote” and calf, and “Whisk” and calf.

The star of the trip was certainly Compass’ calf.  This little whale was very active for much of the trip.  He or she breached five times, tail breached twice, and occasionally lifted its flipper out of the water and slapped it on the surface of the water. In addition to this great surface activity, Compass’ calf was also very curious about the boat and repeatedly swam back and forth beneath us. It even persuaded its mother to join in briefly as well giving us the chance to compare the size of the 6-month-old calf and her full-grown mother!

We were only able to identify one of the 2 (or 3) single Humpback whales in the area, and it was an adult male called “Coral.”  Coral has a really interesting tail because, although he was born with an all white tail (what’s called a type-1), he was attacked by Killer whales at some point early in his life and the scars left behind by the teeth of the killer whales created a series of black rake marks on the white underside of his tale flukes (see picture below).

It’s impossible to say if these mother and cal pairs will remain in the area, but hopefully they will so get to see them many more times. Not only is it great to see a mother and calf of an endangered species, but the calves are also very curious and often full of energy... just like young humans!

S.J. Frontierro

7 Seas Whale Watch