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This whale sighting update is a little different than most I’ve done this year. Rather than describing what today’s trips were like, or telling some of the highlights of the past weeks whale activities, I will just let the pictures do the talking. What I would like to do with this update is talk a little about why we may have seen such a significant shift in the distribution of whales on Stellwagen Bank and what it might mean for the immediate future. CUSTOMER COMMENT FROM TODAY”S TRIP : “This was by far the best whale watch I have been on. Not only did I see many whales, but I learned a lot about them from the crew. Thank you for the great time.” - Bryan Over the past week we have seen a large movement of whales into the northern end of Stellwagen Bank. While some of these whale are individuals that have not yet been sighted this season (whales that probably just recently returned from the breeding grounds in the Caribbean), most are the same whales that we had been traveling 30 miles to see. New whales to the area over the past week have included “Leukos” and calf, “Yahoo”, “Scylla”, “Percussion”, “Pele”, “Plateau”, and “Tear.” While “old” whales (whales that we had been seeing farther south throughout the spring) have included “Nile”, “Fulcrum”, “Pinpoint”, “Compass” and calf, “Giraffe” and calf, “Geometry”, and “Cardhu”. Exactly what has caused these whales to move to the north is difficult to say. The easy answer is FOOD. Whales off the New England coast are here for one reason and that is to feed. So the whales will go where ever the food is! The greater the concentration of food, the greater the concentration of whales. It gets complicated when you start trying to figure why food is abundant in one place, and not in another. Or why one particular type of food is abundant one year, and then very scarce the next. No matter what anyone may claim, no one really understands the complicated working of the marine ecosystem. There are probably more variables that we could imagine. CUSTOMER COMMENT FROM TODAY’S TRIP: “Glorious! A memorable day. The staff was great and the naturalists narration very informative. Thank you!’ - Nancy One thing that is really interesting though is that the food that has brought whales close to Gloucester over the past week is not the American Sand Lance (aka “Sand eel”) that we commonly think of as the preferred food source of the whales in this area. Instead it has been “Krill” (a small, roughly centimeter-sized, shrimp-like creature that is blood-red in color) that has attracted the whales. We have seen both Humpback and Finback whales feeding voraciously on these Krill many times over the past week... including a great feeding group of three Humpback whales (“Fulcrum”, Percussion”, and an unknown whale) this afternoon. Whenever we get a lot of Krill in the area researchers start to get excited about the possibility of seeing one of the rarer species of whales that specialize in eating Krill such as Sei or Blue whales. A number of experienced whale researchers have whispered recently about the possibility of Blue whales in particular coming into the area. And while none have been seen in the Stellwagen Bank area yet, two Blue whales (one juvenile and one adult) were seen off of Chatham, Massachusetts last week! So while I would NEVER promise that you would see a Blue whale on a trip to Stellwagen Bank, keep checking these updates over the next few weeks just in case! CUSTOMER COMMENT FROM TODAY’S TRIP : “A wonderful day! I really liked that the naturalist was a scientist. Thanks for the info!” - Lauren So will the whales stay close? Or will we once again have to start traveling far to the south to find the largest concentration of whales? It is impossible to say. But no matter what it is great to see so many whales in the area. having a place like Stellwagen Bank just a few miles (and I consider even 30 miles just a few miles in the grand scheme of things) off our shore really is a unique opportunity to see things that you would normally have to travel to distant corners of the Earth, or spend days traveling to far offshore places to see. Check back for another update soon! Captain Jay 7 seas Whale Watch Gloucester, MA

JULY 3, 2010

LATEST SIGHTINGS :

DATE July 3, 2010 (Totals for Both Trips)

location  Stellwagen Bank (11 miles from Gloucester)

WHALES 10 Humpback Whales (including 1 mother and calf pair1), 13 Finback Whales (also including a mother and calf pair), and ~125 Atlantic White-sided Dolphins

BIRDS 1 Northern Gannet, many Greater shearwaters, 2 Sooty shearwaters, 1 Cory’s shearwater, and 1 Manx Shearwater

All Photos on this page were taken between June 27 and July 3, 2010 aboard the 7 Seas Whale Watch vessel PRIVATEER IV

WHALE SIGHTINGS  JULY 3, 2010

A Humpback Whale called “Pele” Breaching (Photo by Oktay Kaya, to view more of Oktay’s photos click here)

Humpback Whales Feeding

A Humpback Whale Calf Chin-breaching

Giraffe and Her New Calf

A Humpback Whale Calf  Breaching

Humpback Whale Called “Pinpoint” Diving

Atlantic White-sided Dolphins

A Humpback Whale Calf Breaching

A Humpback Whale Tail