Tuesday morning, we found the humpback whale featured on our
brochure cover, Patches! He was taking dives of varying times 3-8 minutes.
During one dive, we noticed a little fin waving back and forth. This was an
ocean sunfish nearby! We scooted over to check it out and then went back to see
Patches again before moving on. We found two minke whales before heading back
to the dock.
Tuesday afternoon, we headed out
past the Isles of Shoals, prepared for a long(ish) trip to the southern end of
Jeffreys Ledge, off Cape Ann, MA. As we headed past the Isles of Shoals, we saw
an occasional harbor porpoise in the distance. Then, we saw some splashing
ahead – Atlantic white-sided dolphins! We got great looks at these
toothed whales. There were about 40 dolphins, with several calves swimming next
to their moms. We were even lucky enough to see them leap in the air a few
times!
We continued on our way and started seeing some blows. Just off
Cape Ann, we came upon Quote – a humpback whale we’re very familiar with, as we
see her almost every year. We got a few looks at her distinctive tail markings
before moving a bit further offshore. We saw a whale who we think was Dross, a
whale first seen in 1997, and then came upon Pinball and her calf, who were
traveling with another (unknown humpback). Pinball breached right near
the boat! Soon after, we had another breach – we think this was a
different humpback, but aren’t sure who it was. We spent some time with
the calf, who was swimming just off the bow and even flipper-slapped and rolled
over a few times! Our last looks were at a 6th humpback
whale, Satula – we got great looks at his enormous fluke a couple times before
we headed back to the harbor.
Wednesday morning we found Ravine and her calf! We love baby
humpback whales, especially when they are playful and curious! While Ravine was
on a dive, the calf surfaced right next to us and then tail-breached so close
to us that some of our guests on board were splashed! Never thought we’d have
to warn people about being in the “splash zone”. The calf continued to tail-lob and roll at the
surface. It seemed to be having a pretty good time while mom was away!
Eventually Ravine returned and the pair began
to nurse. We took that opportunity to sneak away and look for another whale
that was reported closer to shore. We eventually found it- it was another
humpback whale named Dross. She was traveling and not lifting her tail much.
Such different behaviors from what we had seen with the calf! (Photos to come soon!)
Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning, we stayed at the dock
and let Mother Nature do her thing and blow a bunch of wind around, stirring up
the ocean and making for an uncomfortable whale watching adventure.
Thursday afternoon
It took a while to get where we needed to go, but we ended up
with a spectacular trip. Our first sighting was the humpback Zorro, who
wasn’t spending much time at the surface. There would be a couple quick
breaths, then a 5-6 minute dive. Eventually, we got a look closer to the boat
but decided to move on because he wasn’t spending much time at the surface. We
spotted a blow and went over to it, but never got a look at this baleen whale.
But soon, we saw some splashing, and this turned out to be a large, widespread
pod of about 125 Atlantic white-sided dolphins. They were very active –
fluke-slapping, wiggling around, and even leaping from time to time!
We then saw some more blows and it turned out to be multiple
humpback whales. These whales turned out to be several familiar whales –
Pinball and her calf, Satula, and Hornbill! Pinball and her calf weren’t
always together, and all the whales were moving around quite a bit. We
ended up spending most of our time with Pinball’s calf, as it lolled at the
surface, took a short catnap, and even did a couple “headstands,” where it
surfaced tail first! After spending lots of quality time with the whales,
we headed back to the harbor.
Friday morning, we passed a harbor seal while heading out to
Jeffreys Ledge. There we found Ravine and her calf again. This time they were
pretty mellow and just swimming slowly at the surface. Ravine rolled on her
side briefly, showing us her big flipper.
On our way home, we got a report of another humpback whale about 6 miles
from the harbor. We found Zorro who was traveling to the south.
Friday afternoon, we headed out passing by a few pods of harbor
porpoises and an ocean sunfish. We saw splashing and turned that way. A big pod
of about 200 Atlantic white sided dolphins were charging around while northern
gannets and gulls were swooping down, all trying to catch some little fish! It
was a great show and the dolphins certainly didn’t disappoint.
Our first humpback whale was our adoptable whale, Satula!
He had
most certainly been doing some feeding as evidenced by the bubble clouds he was
blowing to corral his prey, and also by the lovely “brown cloud” left behind at
the surface. We call that “nutrient recycling”!
A minke or 2 were also in the area circling around Satula. We then saw
Quote and Patches together.
One of them would blow a bubble cloud and then both came charging up
through! It was quite the scene! They then splint up but later got back
together. Dross was also around and feeding although she was blowing a bubble
net- a ring of bubbles also used to concentrate the bait fish.
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