previous whale sightings reports:
May 15, 2008 (photographs as promised...)
JUNE 18, 2008
total sightings from recent whale watches:
12-30 HUMPBACK WHALES, 6 FIN WHALES, and 6 MINKE WHALES
June 14-18, 2008
During the past few days we have enjoyed some of our
best whale sightings of the year. The number of whales spotted on each
trip has varied from 10-12 to as many as 30 HUMPBACK WHALES, as many as 6
FIN WHALES, and probably 6-10 MINKE WHALES. At times the whales have been
concentrated on Stellwagen Bank’s northern end (just 12 miles from
Gloucester) while at
other times we
have traveled as many as 20 miles to the middle portion of the bank to
find the largest concentration of whales. But no matter where we have had
to go to find them the whales have been spectacular. On many trips we
have seen breaching (including double-breaching on Tuesday afternoon!) and
other surface activities such as flipper-slapping and tail breaching.
These surface active displays are what has made the Humpback whale a
favorite among whale watchers all over the world. I could go on
describing these surface active behaviors and how great they are to see
but, as they say, “a picture is worth a thousand words” and I (with some
help from my good friend Oktay) have managed to get some very good
photographs of these active whales so I’ll just post them on this page so
you can see for yourself the “show” that the Humpbacks have been putting
on recently. All of the photos you see on this page were taken aboard the
7 Seas Whale Watch boat “Privateer IV” during the past 4 days.
"Tail-lobbing" Humpback
"Chin-breaching" Humpback
Besides the surface activity we have seen some
spectacular feeding behavior as well. For example today (June 18, 2008) we
found ourselves surrounded by a feeding group of 12-15 Humpback whales.
The whales were feeding in the typical Humpback whale style: they were
blowing huge clouds of
bubbles
around schools of fish and then rising through the bubbles, mouths wide
open, consuming hundreds of pounds of fish in each mouthful. The type of
fish that the whales were/are feeding on is a small, pencil-shaped fish
called the “American Sand Lance”. In many of the pictures you can
actually see the Sand Lance leaping from the churning water around the
whales.
Feeding
Humpback Whale
While we can never guarantee that surface activity or the intense feeding activity that we have been so fortunate to witness over the past few days will be seen on any given day, the sheer number of whales on Stellwagen Bank right now greatly increases the chances of seeing such activity. Remember, these whales are wild, endangered animals and to have so many of them gathered just a short distance from our coast is rare privilege and presents us with the opportunity spend just a few hours on the ocean and witness sights that one would normally have to travel to distant corners of the Earth to see. We hope we can share these sights with you soon….
ALL PHOTOS TAKEN ON JUNE 12, 2008 FROM THE 7 SEAS WHALE WATCHING BOAT PRIVATEER IV
Some (okay...most) of the above photos were taken by our good friend Oktay Kaya. To see more of Oktay's beautiful whale photographs and other wildlife pictures he has taken please visit his site at http://www.whalesandwhales.com