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This whale sightings update is different than most I have done so far this year. Rather than just talk about whales and whale behavior, I would like to talk about whale watching itself. Here’s why... Each whale watch trip is unique. To say that one trip is “better” than another I think would be mistake. What makes a trip “better” or “worse” is really just a matter of opinion. To illustrate this concept I will briefly describe three different trips from the past week: June 19th’s afternoon trip, June 21’s afternoon trip, and today’s (June 22) afternoon trip: JUNE 18 On Saturday afternoon we travelled 26 mile from Gloucester in very rough conditions and found 8 Humpback whales. The first 45 minutes of the trip were difficult to say the least. Not only was the wind blowing 15-20mph from the south, creating a 3-4 foot sea that tossed the boat in every direction, but the whales were being diving for a long time and coming up far from where they went down as well. But we (and our passengers) persevered and we eventually found a mother and calf pair of Humpback whales (“Echo” and calf) and they were staying at the surface which allowed for great looks. The calf even rolled on its side and lifted its flipper in the air a number of times. At the time I thought this was going to be the highlight of the trip (and it would have been a fine highlight) but while we were watching Echo and calf we saw two whales double breaching (jumping out of the water at the same time) a few miles to the east and we decided to head that way in hopes that this incredible surface activity would continue. It did. The two whales double breaching turned out to be “Giraffe” and her new calf, and the two continued breaching, tail-breaching, flipper slapping and lob-tailing for the entire 20 minutes we spent with them. While watching Giraffe and calf two other whales also started breaching (one of them was “Milkweed”) and at one point we were watching all four whales leap from the water at once. The boat was rocking and we needed to hang on tight to keep our feet underneath us, but it was an incredible display of surface activity. JUNE 21 Yesterday we travelled 18 miles from Gloucester under perfect weather conditions. The sea was glass-calm, the sky was clear, and the visibility was so good we could see all the way from York, Maine to Provincetown, Massachusetts. We saw 3 Minke whales and two Humpback whales during this trip. The two Humpback whales were “Firefly” and calf. These two Humpbacks were the only ones spotted the entire day, however the calf (who turns out to be a male) was very curious about the boat, often crossing under the bow and rolling over to look at the people on board. This was our first sighting of Firefly and calf this year and since so seeing her with a new calf, and seeing the calf so close under such calm conditions, was great. When the water is that calm and the whales get that close it is as if you are seeing beneath a pane of glass. You simply can’t get better looks at whales than we did on this trip. JUNE 22 Today we had to travel over 30 miles (almost double the distance travelled yesterday) to find whales, but based upon the feedback we received from customers it was (again) well worth the ride. We ended up seeing at least 11 different Humpback whales including two mother and calf pairs: “Cajun” and calf, and “Perseid” and Calf. These two mother and calf pairs have been seen traveling together a lot over the past few weeks which is very unusual. Normally Humpback whales do not form stable, long-tern associations on the feeding grounds. It is not uncommon to see two, three, four, even more whales traveling together, but those associations are usually temporary, lasting just a few minutes, a few hours, or at most a few days. So seeing these two adults and two calves spending so much time together has been a real treat. In addition to the Humpback whales we saw today, we were also treated to a pod of approximately 70 Atlantic White-sided Dolphins which are normally very uncommon during June, July, and August (they are much more common in April/May and then in September/October). NOTE : We also saw a pod of Dolphins on father’s day. We were actually on our way back in and found the dolphins less that 1/2 mile from the harbor! So the distance we have to travel to find the whales, how many whales we find, and what behaviors we are seeing has been changing A LOT each day. But each trip has been great. This is the nature of whale watching (or bird watching, or ANY nature watching!) While we have no control over where the whales are or what their are doing, we will travel wherever we need to go, and stay out as long as we need to stay out in order to give you the best possible experience during your particular day on the water. The rest is up to the whales. I’ll be sure to do another update soon! Jay Frontierro 7 Seas Whale Watch
JUNE 22, 2010

LATEST SIGHTINGS :

DATE June 22, 2010

location  Stellwagen Bank (31 miles from Gloucester)

WHALES 11 Humpback Whales, 1 Minke Whale, and ~70 Atlantic White-sided Dolphins

BIRDS 2 Northern Gannets, 2 Greater Shearwaters, 3 Sooty Shearwaters, and ~10 Wilson’s Storm Petrels

All Photos taken by Oktay Kaya between June 18-22, 2010 aboard the PRIVATEER IV :

WHALE SIGHTINGS June 22, 2010

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

Humpback Whale calf (Giraffe’s calf) breaching on June 18, 2010

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Giraffe in foreground, her calf breaching in the background

Cajun’s calf diving

A Humpback whale “lob-tailing”

Giraffe’s calf “tail-breaching”

Giraffe's calf breaching

Echo’s calf “flipper-slapping”

Quote of the Day (dedicated to my computer’s recently deceased hard drive) : “One machine can d0 the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.” -Elbert Hubbard