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Over the past week the number of whales seen per trip has fluctuated greatly. Sometimes the whales are bunched together, in which case we may see as many as 16 whales in a trip, at other times the whales are more spread out, in which case we may see 2. But as I so often say in these updates, it does not take a lot of whales to have a great trip! Today’s trip was a good example of that. On both trips we saw a mother and calf pair of Humpback whales. The mother was a whale called “Rune” who is one of the most well-known whales in our population and presumably one of the oldest (she was first seen as an adult in 1980 so, since whales take 5 years to reach adulthood, Rune must be at least 35 years old). On the morning trip Rune’s calf breached (jumped out of the water) at least 11 times, which was more than enough for everyone to get good looks and good pictures. As spectacular as breaching is to see, my favorite behavior you can see from Humpback whales is what Rune’s calf treated us to this afternoon... the he aptly named “close-to-boat” behavior. This is when a whale come over to the boat to investigate the boat and the people onboard. RECENT KID’S COMMENT : “This was my first whale watch and will probably be my favorite. The crew was very nice. The whales were the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.” -Ella (Age 9) Rune’s calf must have been in a curious mood because this afternoon he or she swam over to the boat, crossed back and forth beneath us a few times, and even lifted its head out of the water to look at us (a behavior called “spy-hopping)! In addition to Rune and calf we also saw a Humpback whale called “Milkweed” who was apparently doing some “deep-feeding”. A fourth Humpback whale and a Minke whale were also spotted in the area. Please check back soon for another update! Jay Frontierro 7 Seas Whale Watch CUSTOMER COMMENT FROM THIS MORNING’S TRIP : “Very cool experience. Saw a curious Humpback whale slide by the boat - extremely close - and opened it’s big eye to check us out. Definitely a highlight. Thank you!” -Tania

June 18, 2010

LATEST SIGHTINGS :

DATE June 18, 2010

location  Stellwagen Bank (15 miles from Gloucester)

WHALES 4 Humpback Whales, and 1 Minke Whale

BIRDS 2 Greater shearwater, 1 Sooty Shearwater, and 20+ Northern Gannets

Recent Photos taken aboard the PRIVATEER IV :

WHALE SIGHTINGS  JUNE 18, 2010

~ a site by S. Jay Frontierro with photographs by Oktay Kaya

Rune’s Calf Breaching

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Humpback Whale Diving

Humpback Whale Called “Ember” Breaching (photo taken on 6-15-2010)

Rune’s Calf spy-hopping

A Humpback Whale (“Reaper”) Diving

Rune surfacing

A Humpback Whale Called “Reaper” taking a VERY Close at the Boat! (photo taken last week by Jodi Sivak)

Quote of the day:


“Every has another side, even the other side”

                                     - Japanese Proverb