On August 7, our naturalist, Gwen, writes, “A beautiful, sunny, crisp day with perfect visibility! We saw one harbor seal as we rounded Long Point, which provided a nice start to the trip. Today we found ourselves just northeast of the triangle and spent time with two groups of whales. the first group consisted of Alphorn, Pele, Canopy and Bolide, while the second group was made up of Cajun and the calf, Milkweed and Jabiru.
“In the afternoon, there was much more wind. We ended up in the same spot as this morning. We started with two fin whales, then finished with the same two groups of whales as the morning. Although there were mostly deep dives, we did see a few breaches!”
August 8th was another bright sunny day filled with many sightings of humpback whales. At the beginning of the season we could barely go a day without spotting Whisk and her calf. Throughout July, however, the pair seemed to have explored different areas of the feeding ground, and today was the first time she was spotted in several weeks.
Humpbacks tend to return the same feeding grounds year after year, but these feeding grounds can be hundreds of square miles in size, so they may explore all corners of an area within a season. Additionally, humans and whales do not always have the same idea of what constitutes a feeding area boundary, and often whales will surprise us by leaving an area that we expect them to stay within.
Other whales spotted today included Jabiru, Pepper, Canopy, and Ventisca, and Doric, who has unusual white pigmentation on its dorsal fluke.
Doric
By August 9th, the large group of humpbacks east of Stellwagen Bank had grown to at least 20-25 animals, and in the morning, they had all started to feed! As far as we could see, we saw these large animals kick-feeding, using their huge tails to concentrate and aggregate their prey. After smacking the water with their flukes, they would lunge through the huge schools of sand lance, engulfing hundreds of gallons of food with every mouthful.
This morning, they were even joined by a huge pod of at least 150 Atlantic white-sided dolphins, who had clearly been attracted to the area for its huge amount of food!
By the afternoon, the wind picked up and although the feeding subsided, the high winds seemed to rile the whales up, and we saw several huge breaches!
On August 10 we headed back to the triangle to see if we could find the same bunch of whales. They had spread out but were still extremely active. We could see one humpback for miles before our arrival on the scene due to its exuberant surface behavior. It was breaching and splashing, as a second humpback swam along side. When we arrived, we noted that it was a humpback named Apex, distinguished by its triangular dorsal fin. Soon after we slowed down, this whale calmed down and stopped the splashing and breaching, but by that time, all of the passengers had gotten a chance to see this exciting behavior!
On August 11th we experienced an amazing feeding frenzy in the Triangle, an area to the east of Stellwagen Bank. Somewhere between 25 and 30 humpback whales had located an enormous school of fish, and they spent the morning kick feeding and blowing bubble rings to corral these fish into tight schools, lunging through them, and swallowing them whole.
Because of the maneuverability afforded to them by their long flippers, humpback whales can feed on a wide variety of small fish and krill. In Stellwagen Bank, however, their primary food source is the sand lance, a small schooling fish that is often used for bait. Today, huge schools of these fish could be seen wriggling and jumping at the surface. No wonder there were so many whales here!
Although much of the surface feeding had subsided by August 12th, there were still a few dozen humpback whales present east of Stellwagen Bank. We suspected that the food source had moved to the ocean floor, as the humpbacks appeared to be taking longer than average dives. That didn’t stop us from getting excellent looks at humpbacks as they rose from the depths to take a breath. Some of them fluked right off the bow of the boat!
Also in the area were between 100 and 200 Atlantic white-sided dolphins. The dolphins were milling around, not traveling, but rather swimming around in multiple directions, sometimes right around the humpbacks!
By the end of the week, on August 13th, the feeding had started back up again. We arrived in the triangle just as a single humpback was beginning to make the beginning of motions of kick-feeding. It lightly flicked its tail and began circling around a set spot. Pretty soon, this whale was kicking frantically and emerging through the frothy water with a bit mouthful of food. A few minutes later, we watched as other humpbacks began to book it towards the area at high speeds. Soon, we had humpbacks all around us, all kicking and blowing bubbles and feasting away on the small fish in the area.
By the afternoon, the humpbacks had moved south, and although there was no more feeding to be seen, there were still many humpbacks to be seen. Epee, a humpback whale with a mark on the underside of its fluke that looks like a crossed pair of fencing swords, surprised by emerging from the water, seemingly out of the blue, and giving us a close boat approach. When this whale finally left the boat’s side, it began to roll on its side and slap its flippers, a behavior commonly associated with changing group dynamics around humpback whales.
Just as we were getting ready to leave for home, Etch-a-sketch, another humpback, began lobtailing, smacking its tail on the water repeatedly. This seemed to catch the attention of another humpback in the area, who responded by breaching! With all the activity on Stellwagen this week, we’re looking forward to what the rest of August will bring!
Dolphin Fleet naturalist John Conlon notes that in general, as we are seeing more feeding humpback whales and sand eels at the surface, we are seeing more gulls, terns and shearwaters offshore. We are also seeing increasing numbers of gulls and terns in general throughout our trips, including immatures from both groups.
There have even been several sightings of royal terns, which we don’t get too often around here. Also, we are starting to get some of the migrants rolling through. Red phalaropes were spotted just the other day, and there have been occasional sightings of both pomerine and parasitic jaegers offshore.
Greater Shearwaters
On July 31st, our naturalist, Gwen, reported that during our mid-day trip, “We ventured off to the triangle again today. We spent our first moments with a couple of finbacks then promptly headed to whale central. We found ourselves surrounded by approx 12-15 Humpbacks. There was an absolute feeding frenzy. A couple of finners and 6 Minkes were thrown in for good measure too. Cajun and calf, Ventisca, Nile, and Giraffe were in the mix.
“During the afternoon trip, we returned to roughly the same spot in the triangle. We had approximately 12 humpback whales, including Salt and Zelle, Alphorn, Ventisca, as well as many others. The feeding frenzy was over and they were much more lethargic tonight on a nice quiet trip.”
August 1st began with a great look at two individual humpbacks feeding east of Stellwagen Bank. While humpback whales will sometimes feed cooperatively, they can usually manage the foraging process just fine on their own. So while these humpbacks were feeding in the same vicinity, we did not see them associating with one another. They spent the morning kickfeeding, a behavior used by humpbacks to stun sand lance so they can more easily capture large quantities of them.
By the morning of August 2nd, it seemed as though the sand lance, the primary food source for Stellwagen Bank humpbacks, had moved deeper in the water column. Fish and plankton may move up and down in the water column throughout the day, and the whales will go after them anywhere, whether they are at the ocean floor or the water’s surface. We suspected that these whales were feeding deep due to their slightly longer dive times and the huge breaths they seemed to take while at the surface.
As the day went on, it seemed as though the sand lance were driven to the surface. Passengers aboard the Portuguese Princess in the afternoon watched as a humpback named Glo kicked and blew bubbles to trap and corral these small fish. Glo is easily recognizable by the fact that she has a part of her fluke missing. Apparently, this hasn’t diminished her ability to kick-feed!
Winds increased throughout the evening and by August 3rd the seas were choppy and rough. Although this can make for a slightly more challenging whale watch, veteran whale watchers know that it can be worth the bumpy ride, as humpbacks often respond to high winds by breaching. Sure enough, the day was filled with acrobatic humpbacks. Nile, a female born in 1987 breached throughout the afternoon. She was breaching for such a long time that we ran out of time and had to leave the area. As we headed back to shore, we could still see the huge wall of white water she created every time she landed.
Gusty wind and more breaching continued into August 4th when we watched a humpback named Causeway perform what we call a full spinning head breach, leaping out of the water and spinning around before landing again. Lots of breaching, flippering and tail breaching was observed from the decks of the Dolphin VIII.
Meanwhile, on the Dolphin VII we came across Cajun and her calf, who, as seems to be the trend this summer, were accompanied by Pele, Milkweed and Alphorn. While the adult whales fed at the surface by blowing rings of bubbles to capture their prey, the calf floated near the periphery. At this time of year, calves are starting to learn how to feed on solid food, and it’s likely that Cajun’s calf is watching carefully, learning the tricks of the trade.
On August 5th the wind had died down substantially but Stellwagen Bank was covered in fog. Despite our limited visibility, we still managed to locate a humpback whale named Bat who was rolling and flippering next to the boat. By the afternoon, the fog had cleared and more humpbacks could be seen in the area. Today, Cajun and the calf were accompanied by only two other whales, Milkweed and Jabiru, while Alphorn and Pele were nowhere to be seen. After we left this group of 4, two more humpbacks, including a whale named Pumba, started to head right towards the boat. We thought we were in for a close approach, but at the last minute, these whales turned away. At this point, almost out of time, the Portuguese Princess II made a turn and started to head for Provincetown. As soon as we made a turn, Pumba immediately breached behind us, while the other whale began to lobtail. As we continued to head for home, we could still see these whales jumping and flipper slapping for the next five minutes!
On August 6th we had a very exciting sighting early on when we saw a fin emerging from the water near Race Point Light. With all the recent press about great whites in recent days, images from “Jaws” immediately came to mind. When we got a better look, we realized that it was no great white, but in fact, a blue shark. Blue sharks can reach lengths of up to 12 feet, and yes, they really do appear to be blue-ish in color.
As several whale watch boats continued to skirt Race Point throughout the day, many fin whales were observed and photographed. One was swimming in circles, indicating that it had found a patch of food. Although they feed on similar prey items, feeding fin whales are not as obvious as the humpbacks, who blow rings of bubbles to catch their prey. Fin whales will swim in circles around their prey before lunging through the school.
The many scars we see on the bodies of our whale populations tell the story of our impact on the oceans. Notice the scar on the fin whale pictured above, which is likely from a ship strike.
