What a morning!!
A 5 species trip this morning! We started our trip with a good sized pod of harbor porpoise. These are usually tough critters to get some good looks at. They are pretty elusive and don't spend a lot of time on the surface. This group stayed at the surface and gave us all some great sightings. Our next encounter was with a nursery pod of common dolphins. A nursery pod is one that has lots of moms and their tiny calves. Some of the calves are so young they still had their fetal folds ( they get pretty scrunched up during their delevelopment and it takes a bit of time for these folds to fill out). Even though they are called common dolphins they aren't really common sightings for us. In fact this is only the third time I have seen common dolphins in my 21 years on the water. To find a nursery pod of them is beyond exciting!! Check out this video and see if you can count how many mom/calf pairs you can see. Then it was off to find some big whales-a finback and a young humpback. On the way back to port we encountered yet another group of dolphins-this time Atlantic white sided dolphins. We often tell our passengers we only find toothed whales such as dolphins and porpoise on less than 10% of our trips. Today we found more toothed whales than baleen whales! Gotta love whale watching!! You just never know what you are going to see when you leave the dock. NH
Pilot whales and bottle nosed dolphins
This is what happens when I take one day off from work! Pilot Whales and bottlenose dolphins! Thanks to JJ Mullen and Sierra Brown for capturing this once in a lifetime event.
#discovergloucester #gloucesterma #pilotwhales #bottlenosedolphin #whalewatching #nature #getoutside
What happens when I take a day off from work! Thanks to JJ Mullen and @sierra brown for capturing this once in a lifetime moment. #ittakesacrew
Atlantic white sided dolphins
Sea conditions were perfect yesterday for spotting some of our "non humpback" favorite species including Atlantic white sided dolphins, and a Mola mola. Then we were off to watch Satula searching for patches of bait and doing some feeding. Lastly, on our way back to port we stopped by Dry Salvages to observe so many seals both in the water and hauled off on the rocks doing their infamous "banana poses". Check out these dolphins as they cruise around our boat.Such a great day! NH
In this association were Pleats, Milkweed, Valley, Dross, Clamp and her 2024 calf
A six species day!!
Such a fun morning on Jeffreys Ledge this morning! We had a six species day!! We started our morning with a large pod of Atlantic white sided dolphins. We had them on both sides of the boat so our passengers got some great looks at them! Our captain positioned the boat so the dolphins were surfing in our wake. Next we were on to the humpbacks. Pinball and Satula were doing some feeding. Satula found a huge patch of bait and and did some awesome lunge feeding! Along our way we spotted many minke whales. Then we noticed a large dorsal fin in the area and found a Mola mola-Ocean sunfish-my first Mola mola of the season! Next to the sunfish was a gray seal checking us out. Then..the shark!! A huge shark that we first thought was a basking shark but now not so sure. Others who are are much more experienced with sharks than I am were convinced it was a white shark!! YIKES! Great day NH
A Day in the Life of an Intern Aboard the Hurricane II
Dolphins!
Our trip yesterday morning started off with a special treat-a good sized pod of Atlantic White sided dolphins. Although we don't see them all that often they are the primary species of toothed whales we see. They are named for the distinctive white stripe along their side which starts just below their dorsal fin. We actually spotted a few tiny calves in the group! Most of the calves are born between June and July and are about 3 1/2 feet long and can weigh between 45-80 pounds. The calves will stay with their mom's pod for 3-5 years before they venture off. We spent a bit of time with them before we headed off in search of some larger humpback whales. Watch as they surf as they ride in our wake. NH
Best day EVER!
This is my 21st season with CAWW and today's 2 trips are right there in the top 3 if not THE top one! Today I got my first ever look at a blue whale!! This whale is not common to our waters at all. I believe the last time we heard of a blue whale sighting in our waters was over 20 years ago. We got to see this "largest animal on our planet" on both of our trips today. Our naturalist shed tears and could barely speak, interns too had tears and were in total awe. This blue whale has been around for a couple of days now. Even though everyone was out searching to see it...do you realize how hard it is to find one particular whale whale in this huge ocean? But find it we did ( we have a pretty awesome crew who love seeing whales as much as our passengers do). When blue whales exhale-they are so large and exhale with such a powerful force that their blow can be 30 feet high! As you watch this video check out how tall it blow is, how long it stays visible. Next, check out how long it takes to get to finally see its tiny little dorsal fin. This whale was almost as long as our 115 foot boat! During the course of our two trips today we saw a small pod of harbor porpoise, humpback whales, finwhales, lots of huge basking sharks ( one swam right under our boat) and a pod of common dolphins. In spite of their name, these dolphins are not common to our area and it was such atreat to see them leaping and frolicking around the boat! More images to come tomorrow-so many photos and videos to go through. Best day ever! NH
Our favorite calf (so far)
Our sightings for the past 2 weeks have been just awesome! The whales are close, we have seen lots of different species-finback whales, humpback whales, minke whales, Atlantic white sided dolphins and lots of our pelagic sea birds have returned to the feeding grounds. One whale in particular is becoming a CAWW favorite and that is Clamp's new calf! At the end of last season Clamp was at the top of our list of females "most likely to return with a calf". She was HUGE! All of our humpbacks put on lots of weight by the time they leave the feeding grounds but some are so much more "girthier"-if that is such a word. Clamp was at the top of my list for most likely to be pregnant. We followed postings from the whale watch groups in the breeding grounds over the winter and sure enough, there was a posting from one that showed a video in Feb of Clamp and her new calf! This calf is such fun to watch. While Clamp is busy feeding the calf stays at the surface doing all kinds of baby whale activities. Check this out from today's trip. The calf rolls over showing us the ventral pleats on the belly. These look like white stripes. Not useful now but once the calf starts feeding on fish these pleats expand like a pelican's pouch allowing the whale to take in hundreds o gallons of water and fish, filter out the excess water through its baleen plates and engulf the fish. The calf raises it's pectoral flippers in the air as it rolls over. These are some of the whitish flippers I've seen. Hope you enjoy!
Even thogh we spent a lot of time with Clamp and her calf we also spent time with Muddskipper and her calf, Satula dong some bubble clod feeding, Pinball and a few other humpbacks in the area. NH
**All images were captured using telescopic lens and in compliance with Whale Watching Guidelines. In addition, Cape Ann Whale Watch contributes its data to the Center for Coastal Studies, who curates the Gulf of Maine Humpback Whale catalog. **
What a day!
If you read my last post I mentioned how no two trips are ever alike. Today we returned to the same area we've been going for the past few days and here we go again! We have breaching calves! As the video starts we are watching Clamp and her calf. Suddenly Mudskipper and her calf decided to join in. All this activity peaked the interest of our boxer mascot-Crew. He loves watching whales!
Mudskipper and her calf moved on and we continued to watch Clamp and her calf-when the calf began breaching, chin breaching, tail breaching...such fun! Mudskipper and her calf moved to the other side of the boat and her calf then began to breach as well. I can't remember the last time when we had whales breaching on both sides of the boat. This video is unedited-no trimming, no clipping. I just wanted to give you a real life picture of what it's like to be on a whale watch. You'll see our boat mate, Murph pop up and our naturalist Tina cross by the cameras well. Just to let you know that was continuous activity from the calf. NH
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Spunky juvenile humpback
What a day! We headed north to Jeffreys Ledge this morning. Our first encounter was with a humpback named Pinball-a CAWW favorite! She was taking very long dives when we noticed some splashing activity about a mile or 2 away. We headed towards the splashing and were so happy we did! The winds picked up and so did the seas-there were whitecaps everywhere! Oftentimes when this happens, we see whales respond to these changes by becoming “surface active”. And this little juvenile humpback showed us what surface activity was all about. For over half an hour this young whale showed us just how spunky she was. She lobtailed (slammed her fluke up and down on the surface of the water), Lobtailed upside down (belly up). She did tail breaches where she would slam her tail to the side. I f you check out the “belly up lobtail” portion of the video you can notice a soccer ball shaped bulge on the ventral portion of the tail stock. This is called a hemispherical lobe and is only found on females. We have seen this whale before but she does not yet have a name. Before we left, she did a full out of the water breach!!! As we headed back home, we got a glimpse of Harrow and a finback whale. Such a great day! NH
**All images were captured using telescopic lens and in compliance with Whale Watching Guidelines. In addition, Cape Ann Whale Watch contributes its data to the Center for Coastal Studies, who curates the Gulf of Maine Humpback Whale catalog. **
Happy Father’s Day
Happy Father's Day from Clamp's 2024 calf! We spent the entire afternoon trip with this very acrobatic little whale. I think Clamp has a busy summer ahead.
#discovergloucester #gloucesterma #whalewatching #whales #getoutside
Finwhale
We have had incredible sightings over the past few days and I have hundreds of photos and videos to go through. In the meantime I thought I'd post a quick video of our close up and personal encounter with a finback whale yesterday morning. Finbacks are the second largest animals on our planet! They are known as "the greyhounds of the sea" and most often zip quickly through the water giving us quick looks. Finbacks are one the the few animals that have assymmetrical pigmentation. The left side of their lower jaw is dark in color and the right side is white. They have a wash of coloring behind their blowholes called a chevron. The pattern of this chevron is one of the ways researchers can identify individual finbacks. Watch as this one slowly cruises aside our boat giving us great looks of the white lower jaw and the chevron pattern. NH
Thanks to our passengers that captured this amazing encounter of a humpback and a finback feeding
feasting humpbacks
Our trip yesterday was awesome! We had perfect weather and sea conditions along with so many feeding whales. At one point in the trip we were watching one young humpback doing some feeding in a sea filled with krill (we don't see krill very often in our waters). Suddenly out of nowhere a huge finback whale lunge fed right along side of the humpback. The two of them continued to feed side by side. It's not often we get to see these two species pair up and feed along side of eachother. While these 2 fed on the left side of the boat, two huge finbacks began lunge feeding on the right side of the boat. Such awesome activity that you didn't know where to look! By the end of our trip we counted 6-8 finbacks, and 7-8 humpacks including Pitcher,Ravine, Scylla and her calf and many young juveniles yet to be identified. Watch as these 2 humpbacks come to the surface with their mouths full of water and prey as they filter the water out through their baleen plates. A great day on the water! NH
Clamp's spunky calf
Yesterday was a fun morning watching hungry humpbacks feeding on the abundant baitfish. This early in the season the calves rely on their mom's milk as their only source of nutrition. So what does a calf do while mom is below the surface doing some feeding? Check out the antics of Clamp's 2024 calf to see. I have spliced together some footage following the calf as Clamp was feeding. NH
Clamp and her new calf!! Whoo hoo! At the end of last season Clamp was at the top of my list of whales that would most likely come back with a calf this season. She was huge! In February we saw a video from a research group down in the breeding and calving grounds in Turks and Caicos with Clamp and her new calf. We couldn't wait to see them here back on the feeding grounds. Today was my first sighting of this new mom/calf pair. We spent quite a bit of time with these 2 today but mom was busy blowing bubble coulds and feasting on the copious bait in the area-but never fluked up to show us her tail to positively ID her as Clamp. In the meantime the calf spent lots of time doing fun surface activities like tail breaching (which I did not get on video). We were 99% sure this was Clamp but we never positively ID a whale until we finally get that fluke shot. On our last viewing she finally went down for a deep dive and showed us her fluke. Welcome back Clamp..looking forward to following your little one throughout the years. NH
A day with the dolphins
Our trip to Stellwagen yesterday was filled with all kinds of wildlife. We had minke whales and humpback whales. Shuffleboard showed our passengers what bubble cloud feeding was all about, Etch-a-sketch was out searching for baitfish, there were other humpacks scattered around all looking for food. We had some curious gray seals coming over to the boat to check us out... and then there were dolphins! Atlantic white sided dolphins to be exact. We don't see them on many of our trips but when we do it is always such a delight. I've clipped together some of the videos taken yesterday showing them milling around the boat and then surfing in our boats waves. Such a fun day! NH
Great day on Stellwagen Bank
It was windy, the seas were choppy but OH what a trip we had today! We started off getting a quick look at a small pod of Atlantic white sided dolphins-always a special treat. We continued on to the feeding grounds and found a CAWW favorite humpback named Dross doing some bubble cloud feeding. As we were watching her feed another whale popped up next to the boat-Grand Manan. I haven't had a lot of sightings of Grand Manan over my years on the water. He tends to spend most of his time in the more northern feeding grounds. The few sightings I have of him are in early spring and late fall. Perhaps he stops by for a snack here before making his way up north. Then there was a third and a fourth whale that popped in. There were humpbacks on both sides of the boat and hard to keep track of them all. Then we headed off to see our first mother/calf pair of the season for us. It was Wigwam and her new little one. We didn't see a lot of Wigwam-she was busy feeding below the surface. The calf, however, spent lots of time above the surface doing all kinds of surface activities we all love to see. There were breaches, tail breaches, chin breaches, flipper slapping, and rolling over. The seas were really picking up at this point so a video of this activity would probably make you need to take a Dramamine! As we watched the calf, a huge basking shark was spotted next to the boat. It hovered a few feet below the surface but we got some good looks. As we made our way back to Gloucester we noticed some big splashes off in the distance. We had already gone beyond our usual trip time but who can pass up watching a breaching adult humpback whale? Not our captain! The breaching behavior continued as we made our way closer. Watch as Milkweed propells herself out of the water right next to our boat. Such a fun day! NH
