August 18, 2021
The whales have been keeping us on our toes lately, moving from areas they had been hanging out for a while to new places and then, just as quickly, returning to their old haunts. Oh, wildlife…
This morning we headed to where we had seen whales for the past three trips. We were surprised to find only one whale in that area. Although we spent 20 minutes with that animal, that would be the only large whale we saw on this trip.
After searching several other places, we headed for home. And just like that, we came across a pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins! These dolphins were incredible!! Although they would spend a few minutes underwater, they would suddenly appear all around the boat. Several young calves surfaced alongside their mothers, and the pod seemed to be extraordinarily in sync.
The afternoon was quite a bit different. We received a report of a pair of whales in an area we didn’t look at in the morning. On arrival, we found the duo, who seemed to be resting. These animals were very familiar to us as we have been seeing them frequently this season. Humpback whales named Spoon and Chromosome eluded us in the morning but were back in the afternoon. Spoon is well known for resting a lot. And with good reason- she was first seen in 1977 and has had a plethora of calves. As we watched the two just chill at the surface, we were surprised by a sudden tail-breach from Spoon! She suddenly threw her lower body out of the water, creating a big splash! And that was just the beginning!
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She and Chromosome continued to tail-breach, lob-tail, flipper slap, and fully breach multiple times for 20 minutes!
The raucous attracted another whale watching boat as well as a charter fishing boat. We decided to leave the show as we had excellent viewing opportunities and never want to crowd the whales.
A little further out, we found another humpback whale named Patches, featured on the cover of our brochure! Patches is a regular to the Jeffreys Ledge area but not seen all that frequently. Great to have him back again!
This trip was the perfect ending for our intern, Natalia. Today
was her last day with us as she will be returning to school in California.
This was such an amazing trip. We were on the afternoon watch. So much excitement!! Literally a dream come true seeing humpback whales.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment! It was a spectacular trip! Spoon has always been my favorite humpback whale ever since I adopted her as a kid! Check out my blog about adopting her http://www.blueoceansociety.org/blog/how-adopting-a-whale-changed-my-life/
DeleteI was born in 1978. I remember those adoption kits. My first was a whale as well, but I can't remember the name. For many years the only gifts I wanted for birthdays and Christmas were the various species of adoption kits avaliable. I am a licensed vet tech but not currently working in the field. I have always wanted to work with marine wildlife, specifically in rescue and rehabilitation. I currently live in upstate New York so no opportunities for that obviously, lol. Moving to the coast would be the next dream to come true. Thanks again for such an informative trip. I really appreciated the respect shown to the whales and the other vessels in the area. Hope you all have a safe and productive rest of the season.
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