As the day went on and the wind increased, the large baleen whales spread out and spotting the Lags became more difficult.  Fortunately, the humpback whales outside of the bay began to feed at the surface.  Fern, a female humpback first seen in 1983 was particularly active in her feeding display, repeatedly kick-feeding and emerging at the surface with a mouthful of fish.

Fern’s big feed show was rivaled by a sight of a skim feeding right whale at Race Point.  At this time of year, the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale is getting its fill of the last patches of Calanus finmarchicus, its favorite zooplankton prey, before heading to the Great South Channel for the late spring and early summer.  All North Atlantic right whale sightings are reported to NOAA/NMFS, who use this information to warn mariners in the area to watch out for this ship-strike prone whale.  Recently, a smartphone app was developed to give mariners the most up to date information about the presence of right whales in North Atlantic waters.   It highlights areas to be avoided to reduce the risk of collision, as right whales are very difficult to see at the surface.  To learn more about the app, click here.

April 20th was a breezy morning, and we quickly found big numbers of whales just to the south of Stellwagen Bank.  Humpback whales, including Fern, Ventisca, and Twinkle were feeding on fish in small groups of 2s and 3s.   Humpback whales will sometimes feed cooperatively, although what sometimes appears to be cooperative feeding on the surface actually involves one or two sneaky humpbacks entering a fish-filled bubble cloud constructed by another whale!

A true highlight of the morning’s trip was amazing looks at three lunging fin whales.  Like humpbacks, fin whales feed on small fish, but their feeding behavior is very different.  Rather than generating bubbles, fin whale roll 90 degrees on their sides and lunge through schools of prey on their sides.

The afternoon’s trip found a group of six different humpbacks feeding in a similar location.  We noticed that Scylla’s 2008 calf, still yet to be named, still has a small divot-shaped scar behind its blowholes.  This could be the result of a shipstrike, which are sadly, not uncommon occurrences for our humpbacks.  Scylla’s 2008 calf still doesn’t have a name.  Based on the markings on her flukes, what do you think it should be?

On April 21st we found another North Atlantic right whale very close to the beach near Race Point Light.   It can be shocking to see such a large whale so close to shore, but stranding events are rare for large baleen whales.  In fact, as close as 50 feet from shore there is a steep drop-off that can be as deep as 120 feet.  The right whale did not appear to be feeding this time.  Instead, it lifted its head out of the water in a spyhop, thought to be a behavior related to curiosity.  What are those crusty markings on the whales’ head?  They’re called callosities.  Colonies of lice congregate in the cornified skin atop a right whale’s head, and these patterns are what allow researchers to identify these whales as individuals.

The humpbacks were also showing active surface behavior.  Eruption, a 13 year old female, breached repeatedly alongside another unidentified humpback whale, before settling down into some chin breaches.  Also seen today were Aerospace, Bounce, Centipede, and Crystal.  Crystal is one of our favorite whales to see.  Her mother, Salt, is a yearly visitor to Stellwagen Bank since at least 1975.  Crystal was so named because she is “a little piece of Salt”.

On the way back in to the harbor we noticed about 10 Harbor seals hauled out Long Point.  Their very red fur made them easy to spot.  This reddish tinge is due to iron oxide deposits on their hair shafts.

After a few “blow days” — cancellations due to high winds — we decided to venture out again on April 24th.  Unfortunately, we did not have much luck on our morning trip.  When we discovered that in Cape Cod Bay alone there were six foot seas, we decided we couldn’t risk leaving the protected waters of Cape Cod Bay, and instead headed to the southwest.  Although the captain and the first mate spotted one tall blow 2 miles away near the Herring Cove Bathhouse, it was too rough to get to it and we eventually had to return to the dock.

We had a bit more luck on the afternoon trip, although it was quite bouncy!  It was difficult going to get to the spouts without taking the seas on the beam, but persistence payed off with some good looks at a fin whale and some even better looks at a humpback.  Even with the seas, a few passengers were first to spot a small group of 10-20 Atlantic white-sided dolphins before they disappeared.

It was still a bit choppy on April 25th, but we had significantly less trouble getting out to Race Point, which was the place to be.  The rip where the waters of Cape Cod Bay meet the waters of the rest of the Gulf of Maine was filled with life.  When these two water bodies converge, nutrients and food are often pushed to the surface, causing a hot spot of productivity.  Indeed, the feeding today was out of control!  The rip was loaded with Humpbacks, Fin whales, and Atlantic white-sided dolphins all day long.  Circus, Tracer, and Centipede were among the humpbacks chowing down on huge schools of fish.

Gulls and gannets were also enjoying the bounty and they swooped down and dove among our feeding whales, plucking up sand eels and other fish with every dive.

On the morning trip, we were mugged by a solo humpback very curious about the boat.  Suddenly, there were three humpbacks circling the boat!  We also found one juvenile grey seal hanging out in a patch of seaweed.   Young animals will play in plant matter and other objects at the surface to explore and learn about their environment.

In the afternoon, we found Reflection, a female humpback, feeding in the Race Point rip.  Nearby, there was a small entourage of Atlantic white-sided dolphins.  The group consisted of about 11 – 16 individuals and were no doubt attracted to the same patch of food that had lured Reflection to the area.  As the day went on, we saw a total of 7 – 11 humpback whales, including Storm, Fern, and Mostaza.  Many of the humpbacks were small and it was hard to keep track of these juveniles as they embarked on long dives.

Reflection

We even had the opportunity to catch a glimpse of a critically-endangered North Atlantic right whale.  The animals that we see in Cape Cod Bay are part of a global population consisting of less than 500 individuals.  Due to their vulnerability to ship strikes, we are barred by federal law from approaching them within 500 yards, but occasionally when they surface, we are able to get a quick look.

North Atlantic right whale

April 13 was another chilly one with moderate winds out of the Northwest.  We had small groups of Atlantic white-sided dolphins everywhere, often times right up along side the whales.  Getting to see these whales and dolphins cavort next to one another accentuated the enormity of our baleen whales.  Dolphins, about 8 feet in length are dwarfed by our 35 – 45 foot humpbacks!

One of the dolphins had a tag on its dorsal fin, indicating that it was probably one of the individuals that successfully rescued from a stranding this winter.  IFAW’s Marine Mammal Rescue and Research Team had a busy winter as reports of cetacean strandings were high on Cape Cod.  In some cases, researchers will tag dolphins to track their progress after they have been re-released into the wild.  We tried to get a picture of this dolphin’s tag to send to the research team, but it was moving too fast!

Dolphins and fin whales were prevalent throughout Cape Cod Bay, with one enormous fin whale surfacing right next to the Dolphin VIII.

Reflection, proving to be our most-seen whale so far this season, seemed to be everywhere today.  In the morning, she was seen kick-feeding near Race Point.  We relocated her there in the afternoon, but soon after she moved fast to the south.  Many humpbacks, including Midnight and Blackboard were seen feeding very close to the beach.

Blackboard

For bird enthusiasts, Cape Cod Bay has been just as exciting, with a sighting of two razorbills.  Other birds seen early this spring include occasional sightings of surf scoters and black scoters.  Red-breasted mergansers, easily identified by the spiky tufts of feathers on their head are still seen pretty regularly in the Bay, along with Common Loons.  We are still having fairly regular sightings of Iceland and occcasional sightings of Glaucous gulls between Long Point and Wood End.

April 14th was characterized by calm seas and light, warm winds from the Southwest.  On our way out to Stellwagen Bank, we spotted several fin whales and a few Minke whales in the bay, with a small group of dolphins scattered among the larger whales.  As we passed Race Point Light we saw that the beach was a busy place, with whale watchers lined up along shore watching whales with through their binoculars!

Even without binoculars, from shore it was easy to see diving gannets and three humpback whales feeding in the Race Point Rip.  Although we watched a fleet of kayaks near the Race Point, we want to remind people that all boaters should make sure to keep a safe distance from whales, especially if they are feeding, even if you don’t have a motor!

Just around the corner, Bombay was kick-feeding along side of three smaller humpbacks close to shore.  Nearby, the kick-feeding continued.  Reflection was back in action and was joined by Gladiator.

On our second trip, we had our first sighting right away with a harbor porpoise in, you guessed it, the harbor.  We only saw it from a distance, but these small cetaceans are rather elusive and hard to spot.   As we made our way out to Stellwagen, we once again had a number of dolphins scattered in small groups throughout the bay.

After watching the dolphins for a few minutes, we had a group of three fin whales surface among the dolphins.  In behavior somewhat uncharacteristic of fin whales, they stayed at the surface for a relatively long time, giving us time to notice that one had a rather fresh propeller wound on its back.  Sadly, even these fast-moving “greyhounds of the sea” can’t always escape the frequent boat traffic in and around Cape Cod.

The wind picked up in the evening making the seas choppy for our April 15th trip.   On our way out, we saw a few spouts in the bay on our way out, but had our first really satisfying sighting of Blackboard and Storm at Race Point.  

Storm

We ventured offshore to get out of the chop, and as soon as we made the turn at Race Point, we saw a mass of birds in the distance.  Large groups of diving birds often lead us to feeding whales, and sure enough, we found Echo and Division kick-feeding in one spot, and Ventisca kick-feeding with two smaller unknown just a few hundred feed away.  Ventisca is easily recognized by her solid white dorsal fin.

In the afternoon, we were excited to document the first humpback mother and calf of the season!  Mural was back with her calf after a winter calving season off the coast of the Dominican Republic.  These intrepid humpback moms travel over 6,000 miles round trip without eating a single morsel of food before returning to the feeding grounds with their calves in the spring and summer.  Mural’s calf was tiny and squirmy and not at all afraid of the boat.  Most humpbacks are born in the first few months of the year so this tiny calf is no more than 4 months old!

Hazy skies and a sweet chop did not hide several groups of normally-evasive harbor porpoise bobbing just at the surface on April 16, nor did it interfere with our ability to locate two fin whales.  Each fin whale was traveling on its own, aside for a small groups of dolphins following in their wakes.  Several Minke whales also made brief appearances as we tried to predict where the fin whales would pop up next.

We squinted through the haze and found three female humpbacks, Ventisca, Hancock and Cajun.  Humpbacks don’t always travel in groups, but it is not uncommon to see small groups of humpbacks traveling together for short periods of time.  As they get older, humpbacks are more likely to travel together.

At one point during the trip, we saw three humpbacks breach in the distance, while in a different direction, a single humpback began to flipper.  While the humpbacks waited for the humpbacks to resurface, a common loon passed by.  Spring is a great time to see interesting birds, including loons, scoters, mergansers and various gulls.  Below is a photo of one of our year-round bird residents, the cormorant.  Cormorants are deep divers who can dive up to 125 feet in search of their prey.

On our way back to shore, we passed a small group of harbor seals hauled out on Long Point, ending a great trip out to Stellwagen Bank!

April 17th was warm and beautiful, with glassy, calm seas.  Seals were still visible on Long Point as we headed out of Provincetown Harbor where we also had great looks at several Harbor porpoise.  Not long into the trip, we found Bombay, a twelve year old humpback whale, kick-feeding at Race Point.

We went further offshore, but the whales seemed scarce, and as we waited, it turns out that they were just diving for long periods of time.  We finally had good looks at Screwdriver and Circus, who surfaced nearby.

Screwdriver

Luckily, several groups of dolphins stayed with the boat, so there was always something to look at.  The flat-calm seas allowed us to watch them dart and dash beneath the surface.

We could also see two North Atlantic right whales in the distance, although we could not approach them, as federal law prohibits approaching them within 500 yards.  These animals were skim-feeding, meaning that their heads were out of the water and their mouths were open.  Despite their enormous size, these whales feed on calorie-rich zooplankton called copepods, which are smaller than a grain of rice.  They swim forward with open mouths, trapping these copepods in their fine, fringe-like baleen.  It’s estimated that they need between 400,000 – 4,000,000 calories per day in order to survive!  On our way back in on our afternoon trip, we even found one of these animals skim feeding in the harbor, right by the breakwater!

After seeing our first mom/calf humpback pair earlier in the week, were especially excited to see a mother/calf fin whale.  While we know a lot about what goes on in humpback breeding grounds, we have no idea where fin whales give birth to their calves.  Sightings of fin whale calves are much more rare.

April 18 was a crisp spring day, with a chilly breeze characteristic of this time of year.  We found that we didn’t even have to leave Cape Cod Bay to find an abundance of whale and dolphins, right between Wood End and Race Point.   In the morning, we noticed on our depth-sounder or “fish finder” in the wheel house that there were large patches of bait near the bottom.  Surface movements of the whales were consistent with feeding at depth, with brief appearances at the surface followed by long dives.

Things had changed by the afternoon where we found that most of the action was taking place at the surface.  Both humpbacks and fin whales lunged through schools of beach all around the vessel, to everyone’s delight.  The dolphins, gannets and gulls all took their turns plucking off individual fish, further and adding to the excitement.  Even the wind and growing cloud cover went virtually unnoticed as we watched all of this activity taking place.

As they surfaced and lunged, we were able to get several good identification shots of our fin whales, who are notoriously more difficult to track as individuals.  They can be identified by the silver patches near their jaw and blowhole, known as the blaze and chevron pattern, as well as by the size and shape of their dorsal fin.

So far this season, we have identified Belt, who was first seen in 2006 and has been seen every year since then.  We have also documented a male named Furrow who has not been photographed by the Dolphin Fleet since 2008, but who has been seen occasionally in these waters since 1985.

]]> http://whalewatch.com/naturalist/?feed=rss2&p=1844 0 http://whalewatch.com/naturalist/?p=1825 http://whalewatch.com/naturalist/?p=1825#comments Thu, 10 Nov 2011 02:18:58 +0000 admin http://whalewatch.com/naturalist/?p=1825 On October 17th we found Rune and Glo slowly working their way to the southeast.   Pleasant breezes between 11 and 16 knots kept a nice bounce on the water, while sunny skies made our two trips today quite enjoyable.   As the days get shorter, we are seeing fewer and fewer humpback whales, as many of them prepare to make their way down south to their winter home in the West Indies and the Caribbean.  Their departure from the Gulf of Maine can be as early as October and as late as December, with some juveniles sticking it out for the winter, saving precious energy and occasionally finding a patch of food here in the winter.

Once humpbacks have set forth on their migratory route, they are thought to head straight for their wintering grounds, rather than meandering or stopping along the way.  Scientists studying humpback migrations in the southern hemisphere recently found that individual humpbacks will maintain a constant course over 200km , sometimes not stopping for several days!

Despite the calm seas and great visibility on October 18th, we weren’t able to find whales until the afternoon, when we finally located Salt and Nile to the north of the BE Buoy.   The BE Buoy is one of the buoys marking the shipping lanes into Boston harbor.  The entrance to the shipping lane is designated as BA, with the letters moving sequentially through the alphabet approaching the harbor.  The shipping lanes were recently shifted northward in order to accommodate a seasonal “hotspot” of cetaceans in Stellwagen Bank, and this shift will hopefully reduce the number of shipstrikes that threaten our already fragile population of large whales.

Near the base of Nile’s dorsal fin, we could just barely see a scar left behind by a tagging study done earlier this summer.  The tag has long since fallen off, but that fact in and of itself has provided scientists with important information.  The tagging study this summer was carried out by scientists from Australian Antarctic Division, Cascadia Research Collective, The Marine Mammal Center, the National Marine Mammal Laboratory, and the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies as part of a pilot project to test the longevity and impact of a new tagging technology.  Nile’s tag transmitted data for 28 consecutive days!  More information on the project and a map containing information on all of the tagged whales can be found here.

After a few days of wind, we were eager to head back offshore on October 22nd.   As we left the harbor, we watched the double crested cormorants on the breakwater drying their wings between dives, and noticed that there was a larger, lighter bird among the black-winged waterfowl we are so used to seeing perched on the rocks.  We grabbed our binoculars and saw that it was a great blue heron sitting atop the rock wall!

After not having much luck with whales on our morning’s trip, we headed to the north, rather than to the east on our afternoon trip.   We headed so far offshore that land was barely visible, and finally found Salt, the true grande dame of Stellwagen Bank.  Salt was surfacing reliably every 12 minutes, and at one point she even surfaced right under the bow!

We had another long ride on October 23rd, but this time had a bit more luck.  We ended up 22 miles to the northeast of Race Point with calm seas on our side, and here we found four humpback whales as well as one sei whale.   Sei whales, like the North Atlantic right whales so common in our waters in the spring, feed largely on copepods and another types of zooplankton.  Being low on the food web, copepods are rich in usable energy and contain an oil rich sac that is orange in color.  A late-stage Calanus finmarchicus is only slightly smaller than a grain of rice, and is about two calories.

Among the humpbacks spotted today was Follicle.  Follicle is a female first seen in 1998.  She had her first known calf in 2009.  To date, this calf is without a name.

On October 24th, mostly cloudy skies and flat seas accompanied us out nearly as far out as Wildcat Knoll, to the east of Stellwagen Bank.  Here, the passengers were treated to sightings of a single humpback, and at least 25 feeding sei whales!  These quick, sleek, mysticetes were lunging on their sides through huge swarms of krill, almost resembling a tadpole as they rolled to their sides,  ventral pleats bulging.

The waters were soon red with krill, as well as with the defecation from a few of the feeding whales.  Krill are about an inch long, resemble shrimp, and are often bright red in color, making them easily distinguishable at the surface.

Especially compared to the well-studied humpback whale, little is known about the range and migratory patterns of the sei whale.  Much of what we know about these animals comes from whaling records, and as such, there is no good estimate of their population in the North Atlantic.

The seas picked up dramatically overnight and on October 25th, we only attempted one trip in the afternoon.  Despite the rough seas, we managed to get a few great looks at the two Minke whales that have been reliably hanging around in Cape Cod Bay, just off of Wood End Lighthouse.  Our initial course was towards the southwest corner of Stellwagen Bank, as battling the east wind to go back to Wildcat Knoll would have made for quite an unpleasant trip.  Luckily, our keen-eyed captain Todd was able to spot a fin whale from three miles away.  This is quite a feat considering that these elusive animals often keep a very low profile!  Although we only got a quick look, it surfaced right under the bow, giving all of our passengers a great look at this gigantic animal!

Also keeping our attention during our wait for the whale were the dozens of diving gannets plunging into the ocean all around the boat.  These pelagic birds have wing spans of around 6 feet, and dive headfirst into the water — creating a great splash — whenever they spot a fish.

It rained overnight, but cleared up by October 26th, and we anticipated another long ride offshore.  Luckily, the seas were calm, and we were prepared.  We were also lucky that we had one of our best whale spotters on board.   Our first mate, Lacey, spotted spouts from miles away, and when we arrived on scene, we found over 13 humpback whales lunging and gulp feeding away!

There were many Great shearwaters with the whales.  These birds feed on the same small fish that the whales are after, and like the whales, spend the summer bulking up for their long migration south.  These birds travel even farther than the humpbacks, nesting and breeding in the southern hemisphere.  These gull-sized birds could be seen swooping and diving beneath the bubbles that the whales were generating to aggregate the fish.

We were especially excited to see Thalassa and Habenero in this mix.  These two whales are the offspring of two female humpbacks, Salt and Pepper, respectively, who were often seen associating with one another in the mid 1970s!  They still return to the waters of the Gulf of Maine to feed.

On October 27th, the gray skies and rain couldn’t mask the raucous bird activity happening both near shore and out towards the triangle.   Mature and immature gannets, double-crested cormorants, common terns, several species of shearwaters and gulls, and even a northern fulmar, were all competing for schooling fish.  The high winds and big seas also didn’t stop us from seeing two huge humpbacks breaching in the distance.  The action didn’t stop as the Dolphin VIII approached these two active humpback whales.  Upon our arrival, they expressed curiosity about our vessel, approaching and then diving under the bow.

Today, we marked the close of the 37th season.  The cold winds of fall make it increasingly difficult to get good whale watching trips in, and so we’re closing up shop until the spring.  This season included an incredible spring, with dozens of right whales and sei whales feeding in the bay, followed by a summer of feeding humpbacks, amazing sightings of humpbacks and minkes, followed by a blue whale and even some long-finned pilot whales in the fall.  We can’t wait to see what 2012 has in store for us!  See you then!