August 6, 2025

 Wednesday’s trips were full of surprises, and not all were of the good kind.

Our morning started out by seeing a humpback whale only about a half hour from the dock. This whale was feeding just beyond the Isles of Shoals. Often, when humpbacks are surface feeding, they will blow a column or ring of bubbles to corral the fish before charging to the surface. This gives us a few seconds of warning as to where they will come up. This whale was not doing that, so the surface lunges were unpredictable.

Next, we found Clamp, who was just doing what whales do- breathing and diving.

Another humpback whale was seen coming into the area. This one never fluked, but had a uniquely shaped/scarred dorsal fin, so we hope to match it by those markings.

Spoon was spotted in the distance, but was taking long dives and moving around quite a bit. Finally, we found a pair of humpback whales, Valley and Chromosome, who were also not fluking- just slowly swimming along at the surface.

We saw our first whale a little over an hour into the trip on Wednesday afternoon. As soon as we saw it, our hearts sank. This whale was entangled in fishing gear. Although we talk about threats to whales a lot, and most humpback whales have scars from entanglements, we (fortunately) rarely see whales with gear on them. We reported the whale to the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, the closest group permitted to disentangle large whales. Unfortunately, due to the time of day, they weren't able to get up here and work the whale before darkness set in. We will hope for the best in the next few days if the whale is seen again*.

Nearby, we saw a fin whale and then another humpback whale. This was Patches!! He is on the cover of our brochure, so he is always a welcome sight! He did a quick bout of feeding, including a bubble cloud to allow us to anticipate where he would surface. And that he did! He came crashing through the surface in the middle of the bubble cloud, giving us all an incredible look at this mighty whale!

A second fin whale showed up along with a shy humpback whale.

On the way home, we found yet another humpback whale—apparently a juvenile just based on size. We have several small-ish whales that we are still working on identifying.

On the way home from this heavy trip, many people asked about what they could do to help. I’d love to say simple things like using less plastic, consuming less energy, etc., but honestly, we all need to contact our representatives regularly. Call them, talk to their staffers, leave a message- just tell them what you are passionate about. Ask them to support NOAA, the Marine Mammal Protection Act (current version, NOT the proposed changes!), ropeless fishing gear, all environmental legislation, and whatever else you care about (even beyond whale stuff). Our legislators work for US! They can't represent us if they don’t know what we care about. Call them! It’s easy. It’s just a phone call. Call them regularly! Find your reps here!

Also, please support your local environmental groups, which are working hard to protect our wildlife and the health of our planet. With recent cuts to government spending, our non-profit organizations are taking up the slack to protect and conserve the wildlife we hold near and dear to our hearts. 

*We are not sharing photos of the entangled whale for sensitivity purposes, but they have been shared with the disentanglement team to aid in their attempts for a successful disentanglement.