Thursday, August 4, 2022
On Thursday, the air offshore was cool and inviting, a
welcome change from the heat wave we have been experiencing. We started our
trip with a large ocean sunfish. The water was quite turbid due to the high
winds, but we were still able to get some great looks at this unusual fish.
We had to travel for a bit before finding our next animals,
but it was worth the wait as it turned out to be a pod of about 120 Atlantic
white-sided dolphins! This group was very active, darting all around the boat
near and far. There were several calves in the pod as well. We were surrounded!
We also spotted a minke whale on our way back to the harbor.
The afternoon trip was also a nice relief from the heat, and
the winds had even picked up a bit (great for the many sailboats we saw!). We
searched and search for whales, but they were being very elusive this
afternoon. The rough seas also didn’t help with our sighting efforts, but we
were able to find a minke whale before it was time to head home.
Friday, August 5, 2022
This morning’s whale watch was one for the books, but not in
a good way. We found an entangled minke whale with rope through its mouth, over
its back, and a big snarl on its side. This is our nightmare. We never want to
see the whales that we cherish suffering in pain. We immediately called our friends at the Center
for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, MA, who are trained to disentangle large
whales. They arrived on the scene a few hours later, but unfortunately, the boat
that was standing by the whale lost track of it. Minke whales are notoriously
hard to keep track of, even on a good day. The CCS team searched the area, but the
whale wasn’t found. We hope it is seen again so it can get the help it
desperately needs!
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| Entangled minke whale |
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| Minke whale swimming near fishing gear |
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| Minke whale swimming near fishing gear |
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| Minke whale |
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| Entangled minke whale |
After we handed off the minke whale to another boat to babysit, we continued to search for
more marine life. We found a large pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins, which
perked everyone up after watching the stress of watching an entangled whale.
We
also found an ocean sunfish and a shark of unknown species in addition to
several harbor seals and pods of harbor porpoises!
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| Ocean sunfish |
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| Shark! |
The afternoon trip was still glass-calm and absolutely
beautiful. The predicted thunderstorms wound up just being a trickle of rain,
so we were grateful for that! We started our day with a few harbor seals and a
gray seal. Then, our deckhand Matt spotted something very special: a Kemp’s
Ridley sea turtle! These are the smallest and most endangered species of sea
turtle and are not typically found in the Gulf of Maine. Matt just happened to be
looking in the right place at the right time! This animal was probably only a
foot across and was a little hard to keep track of, but we were able to watch
it for quite some time.
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| Kemp's Ridley sea turtle |
We came across three minke whales. Our first was taking
longer dives, but the second two were near each other and took turns surfacing.
We got some great looks as they came closer to the boat a couple of times. We
continued on and were surprised by another special species: a basking shark!
These are the second largest shark species, and lately, we haven’t been seeing
them as much. This was our second for 2022. What a treat!
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| Minke whale |
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| Basking shark |
Our day of unique sightings wasn’t over yet, as we spotted
some splashing ahead of us on the way home. This turned out to be a pod of
about 75 Atlantic white-sided dolphins, which we only see on about 20% of our
trips. There were calves in this pod as well. Our trip wrapped up with an
appearance by a blue shark. What a great way to start the weekend!
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| Blue shark |
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| Atlantic white-sided dolphin |
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