Posted under whale watches
I had promised my youngest nephew that I would take him whale watching before school started for the year. I didn’t plan to let the school year sneak up on me before we went! So, off we went. The good thing is the memories would be fresh in his mind for sharing with his friends. I am impressed with how he did on the day given the 2.5 hour car ride each way, and another hour each way on the boat with the whales as the highlight event. Not sure if he has the patience to do it again any time soon, but we did get a pretty darn good whale watch out of it.
Again I went to Gloucester to go out with Capt. Bill and Sons. For a youngster’s first whale watch, I really didn’t want to deal with the crowded Aquarium boats even though it is a shorter drive. The trip from Gloucester was certainly well attended but the people density is still a lot better for views than on larger boats, IMNSHO. It was a beautiful day with terrific visibillity; we could see the Boston skyline on our way out.
First sighting was a juvenile whale which did a tremendous display of tail breaching. I am not sure the nephew could really appreciate it, being his first time out and all, but I was pretty excited about it! We found a number of other humpback whales as well, and got a good look at a fin whale. The identified humpbacks included Crown and her calf, Etch a Sketch, Percussion and Infinity.
All told, the final count as presented by the naturalists included over a dozen humpback whales, a couple of fin whales, and several minkes. Not surprisingly, the nephew fell asleep on the way home, but he seemed to have a good day. He took his own photos with the disposable cameras I brought for him, got to see the humpback skeleton at the Whale Center of New England, and can now say he has had the same experience as his two older brothers.
We had a spectacular day on the water with loads of great sightings. Mothers and calves were in seeming abundance. Apostrophe and her calf were out and about and “bumped into” Bilbo/Spoon with her calf. Apostrophe’s calf seemed to want to play with the other but there was no mutual interest. I know it’s easy to anthropomorphize these animals, but it was easy to compare the activity to what one might see on any playground with kids who are willing and kids who hide behind their mom’s leg. Apostrophe pulled away and took her calf along, thus ending the “playground encounter”. 
Next up we found two adults and a calf. One of the adults was Banyan, who is easy to ID even without seeing flukes because of the around of scarring around the tail stock from an entanglement. We also found a juvenile whale who was breaching, though I was not quick enough with the camera to catch it. Some flipper slapping was also seen, making this trip a great array of surface behaviors.
By noon, we had found a much more active whale, identified as Springboard. She thrilled us with a show that included breaching and flipper slapping. We were in the vicinity of the BE Buoy by this time. For me, nothing is more thrilling than seeing a whale breach.
New fact for me on the day – I love that, no matter how many whale watches I’ve been on (I think I am up to 30-40 by now), I always learn something new. Since it is early in the season and the whales are just returning to these feeding grounds, Mason commented that he can tell some of them are looking a little thin after the long fast. And how can he tell? The appearance of a shoulder blade on the side, just behind the blowholes. I managed to catch it on film when Springboard did a chin breach. You should be able to see it in this photo.