| Monday, November 9, 1999
On Thursday afternoon, October 28, 1999, WCNE assistant director Dave Morin found the adult female humpback named Compass entangled in fixed fishing gear. She had about two feet of fishing gear hanging from the left side of her mouth. Hanging from the right of her mouth was 20-30 feet of line loosely trailing down her side.
We quickly notified the official disentanglement team from the Center for Coastal Studies (CCS) in Provincetown, MA, so they could assess the situation. It took CCS an hour and a half to arrive to attempt to disentangle Compass. CCS is the only organization permitted by the government to attempt disentanglements, although WCNE staff work to support their efforts.
Sadly, attempts to cut the gear from Compass proved unsuccessful, given the limited amount of daylight left. Dave and the CCS staff agreed that the entanglement was not immediately life threatening and that Compass may be able to free herself on her own. Our thanks to Capt. Jim Baginski of the Super Ranger who stayed with Compass far longer than a whale watch trip usually lasts.
Monday, November 1, 1999
Whale aggregations on the southern part of Stellwagen continue to build. We had relatively good weather for the past week, so we were able to work at sea on a number of days. There were usually at least 30 humpbacks within eyesight on the southern 1/3 of the Bank at any point. Many of these animals were older juveniles, but there were a few adults as well.
Surface feeding was uncommon, but many whales appeared to be feeding on bottom prey. Some younger animals appeared to be very curious about boats; this may be attributable to winter hormones starting to kick in.
Whales seen include Scratch and calf, Foxfire, Beacon, Skewer, Echo, Whisk, Icarus, Tiara, Lacuna, Churn, Voltage, Infinity, Roswell, Dome, Tunguksa, and may others.
Wednesday, October 27, 1999
 Many people think this is late in the season for whales. While it may be late in the season for public whale watch boats, it is certainly not late for the whales themselves. Migration does not really take place until the middle to end of December, although a few animals may leave shortly before that time. As a result, it is not surprising that we still have large concentrations of whales on the southern end of the Bank.
Surface feeding has started to become commonplace, and concentrations of over 30 humpbacks are not uncommon. Several mother-calf pairs that we have not seen since mid-summer have moved back into the area as well, and we are seeing considerable numbers of both adult and juvenile whales.
Mothers seen include Scratch, Anvil, Sickle, and several others; other whales sighted include Upwelling, Tear, Churn, Dross, Dome, Infinity, Lacuna, Cardhu, Salt, Voltage, Citation, Isthmus, Coral, Molson, Icarus, Whisk, Echo, Nile, Sparta, Sting Ray, Rocker, Tribble, Conflux, Tiara, Putter, Ase, Tunguska, Epee, Draco, Sabre, and many more.
Wednesday, October 13, 1999
The weather continues to deteriorate, and we have lost much of the past week to rough seas, wind, and rain. On the days we did get out, heavy chop often limited the area we have been able to survey. As a result, our coverage has been very limited.
Whales have been scattered, and have not been terribly active. Any feeding we have seen has generally been subsurface, and we have seen mainly juveniles. Whales seen include Abrasion, Echo, Coral, Sparta, Voltage, Falcon, Conflux, Dross, Churn, Nile, and Ganesh, among others.
Monday, October 4, 1999
We have now entered October, and the weather has turned less predictable. This means more days on the water have been lost to high winds, so our coverage is not as complete as other times during the year.
In general, though, things have been somewhat consistent. Whales are still most densely concentrated on the southern half of the bank. Young whales have been moving up and down the Bank, and yesterday a few adults were seen on the northern end as well. We also have reports that whales are starting to show up in some numbers on Jeffreys Ledge. This is somewhat typical for the fall, as herring spawning takes place on the Ledge. The concentrations of prey generated by this activity often brings humpbacks in to the Ledge.
There may be some herring along with the more typical sand eels on Stellwagen as well. We do know that what feeding is taking place on the northern end of the Bank is along the sea floor, as we spotted Colt with mud all over his snout and tail flukes last Friday. Whales seen include: Lacuna, Infinity, Geometry, Salt, Cardhu, Colt, Ganesh, Moray and calf, Zeppelin, Churn, Vader, Pogo, Margarita, Molson, Tear, Anchor, Icarus, Roswell, Patchwork.
Monday, September 20, 1999
 Whales have still been moving up and down Stellwagen Bank, and still seem somewhat unsettled. Many people wonder how the whales deal with a storm like Hurricane Floyd, which passed through here late last week. While we are not out at sea during very rough weather to see firsthand, we often see the same whales the day before and they day after the storm passes.
While we assume that the whales just ride it out, there does often seems to be an effect on the prey source. Baitifsh (such as sand eels) schools often seem dispersed and blown around after a storm, and they seem to take several days to regroup. In this case of Floyd, the day or two after the storm passed whales were somewhat scattered and less abundant than before the storm on the northern end of the Bank, but there were many whales on the southern end.
One particular danger may be to mother-calf pairs; many years ago the calf of a female named Binoc was found stranded after a severe early winter storm. We have no such evidence that this storm had any similar consequences.
Whales seen include: Octave and calf, Tenedor and calf, Web and calf, Voltage, Amazon, Venom, Citation, Whisk, Oculi, Abrasion, Trident, Nile, Plateau, Virgule, Owl, Cardhu, Falcon, Rio, Conflux, and many others.
Tuesday, September 7, 1999
A week of movement for whales. The week started with whales on the southern end of Stellwagen Bank, as they had been for several weeks. However, by the end of the week whales had moved into northern Stellwagen in some numbers, leaving us with whales all up and down Stellwagen. Whales have not been as concentrated as they had been, and we have seen only sporadic surface feeding. There has been some sub-surface feeding in groups of 3-5 animals rushing around, as we saw last fall.
One new mother-calf pair for the week Diablo, the 1983 calf of 5/J, with her second recorded calf. Other mothers seen over the past week include Anvil, Octave, Web, Compass, and Tenedor; other whales seen include Fracture, Alpha, Palette, Nile, Stellar, Anchor, Echo, Sword, Tornado, Collision, Infinity, Alphorn, Molson, Wizard, Timberline, Loon, Hancock, Tectonic, and many others.
Monday, August 30, 1999
Two weeks of intense whale activity. The previous week started with some of the largest feeding aggregations we had yet seen on one day, as we identified over 50 humpbacks in a feeding group on southern Stellwagen Bank! Many adults were present, including some we had not seen on Stellwagen in a number of years.
Over the past week, though, more and more whales have been moving north on the bank. Interestingly, the prey seems to be mixed between the normal sand eels, and small mackerel or herring. In the past few days we have had a mix of surface feeding and some big-group sub-surface feeding, similar to what we had last fall and sporadically earlier in the year.
This alternate prey source also seems to be drawing in large numbers of Atlantic White-sided dolphins we have been seeing pods regularly, and we have had some days with over 1,000 dolphins!
Whales sighted include the following mothers: Furrows, Scratch, Compass, Octave, Tenedor, Web, Anvil, Pisces; other whales include Cardhu, Ember, Zeppelin, Ursa, Ivee, Alpha, Fan, Ase, Whisk, Voltage, Scylla, Badge, Hancock, Skewer, Collision, Black Hole, Vader, Venom, Churn, Citation, Firefly, Nile, Stellar, Sparta, Taper, Sting Ray, Alphorn, Pepper, Oculi, Eyebrow, and many others.
Monday, August 16, 1999
 Whales are on the move once again, but this time heading closer to our home! Near the end of last week whales moved back into the northern end of Stellwagen Bank. They have resumed their large group sub-surface feeding that we have seen on and off through 1999 and saw often in the second half of 1998.
The whales near the southern portion of the bank are still largely there as well, and adults tend to be found further south, while the whales on the northern end tend to be younger animals. There are exceptions, though, and we have seen some animals of each age class in either location.
Whales seen include: Thread, Echo, Venom, Sparta, Whisk, Oculi, Entropy, Virgule, Conflux, Bric-a-Brac, Falcon, Amazon, Fan, Nile, Stellar, Vader, Tenedor and calf, Scratch and calf, Vulture, Tear, Plateau, Churn, Trident, Fracture, Underline, Division, Sloop, Loon, Reaper, and many more.
Monday, August 9, 1999
After a week of being "unsettled," our humpbacks have once again settled into the southern and middle part of Stellwagen Bank. There are many whales there, often spread out over a large area. Mother/calf pair sightings continue to be common, and we have seen surface feeding on a number of days. Sightings of white-sided dolphins are starting to pick up; they were seen several times last week.
Whales seen include the following mothers: Tenedor (first recorded calf, at age 12, and the first "grandchild" of Staff), Octave, Pisces, Compass, Web, Scratch, Tongs (first recorded calf), and Sod. Other whales sighted include Nile, Stellar, Hangman, Salt, Cardhu, Zeppelin, Fracture, Underline, Venom, Fan, Tornado, Voltage, Whisk, Dome, Inferno, Isthmus, Tear, Pogo, Bullet, Falcon, Virgule, Beacon, Nimbus, Sword, Trident, Mirror, Onyx, and many more.
Monday, August 2, 1999
 It was a very strange, unsettled week for whales. Over the past few weeks aggregations of whales seemed somewhat consistent, but this past week everything was on the move. The area on the middle of Stellwagen Bank where we had previously seen many feeding adult humpbacks now has several juveniles sub-surface feeding in groups of 3-6 animals together, something we had seen on the northern end of the bank up until a few weeks ago.
We have been seeing many whales on each trip, but individuals have rarely been re-sighted in the day or two following. It seems like a lot of animals are coming through to check out prey levels, but are not finding enough to keep them in the area. This is surprising to us, as we have been seeing large surface schools of sand eels regularly over the past several weeks, and this past week was no exception.
We have seen one new mother Lava, who showed up last Friday far to the east of the Bank. Whales seen in the past week include the following mothers: Sod (first appearance since 1993!), Lava, Apostrophe, Octave, Anvil, and Compass. Other sightings include Zeppelin, Colt, Ember, Cardhu, Salt, Molson, Coral, Mirror, Hangman, Division, Bric-a-Brac, Scylla, Stellar, Upwelling, Tectonic, Giraffe, Anchor, Echo, Fracture, Underline, Bilbo, and many more.
Monday, July 26.
 Whales are aggregated in the middle of Stellwagen Bank, moving east to west on an almost daily basis. Heavy fog over the past few days has made it difficult to know what else we may be missing, but we have still been finding significant numbers of whales. Adult surface feeding has been common, and some of the surface feeding we have observed off of Silver II has been among the best we have seen all year.
In the past few days a few juveniles have started to move into our area, usually found separated several miles away from the adults. Sightings of mother/calf pairs have still been common; in the past week we have seen Octave, Sickle, Dusky, Compass, Scratch, and Pisces with their calves. Other identifications include Mallard (first sightings in several years!), Isthmus, W, Salt, Cardhu, Ember, Zeppelin, Reaper, Fan, Whisk, Anchor, Sting Ray, Vulture, Plateau, Bilbo, Grommet, Timberline, Roswell, Fracture, Fragment, Sparta, Milky Way, Vader, Mars, Inferno, and many, many others.
Monday, July 12.
A week of split whale activity. The northern end of Stellwagen Bank has been somewhat quiet for adults, except for a surge last Friday. That morning we had some amazing surface feeding from adult females Salt and Cardhu. Otherwise, Fan, Whisk, Nile, and Trident have also been around.
Most of our sightings have been of juveniles group feeding on near-bottom prey. This behavior was somewhat confirmed this week by a dive team, led by Dr. Sylvia Earle, working on Stellwagen through the National Marine Sanctuary office (more details to follow).
Meanwhile, the southern half of the Bank is where adults have been sighted, with surface feeding commonplace. A number of mother-calf pairs were using this area, and lots of adults we have not seen in a while. ID's for the week include the following mothers: Scratch, Sickle, Web, Octave; non-mothers include Alpha (first sighting since 1994!), Mars, Sting Ray, Bandit, Racoon, Division, Reflection, Upwelling, Visage, Nail, Valence, Eyebrow, Taper, Entropy, Bolide, Whisk, Vader, Collision, Hancock, and many others.
Monday, July 5, 1999
 Whales are now spread up and down Stellwagen Bank. The northern end of the bank has a number of juveniles, and several large groups charging around subsurface feeding. We have reports of many whales on the southern end of the Bank, and hope to investigate those reports with our research boat in the coming week.
Whales seen over the past week include Fan, Whisk, Vader, Venom, Bolide, Stellar, Pumba, Upwelling, Nail, Churn, Springboard, Entropy, Zeppelin, Pele, Geometry, Fragment, among many others. Activity included some aerial displays, like the flipper breach seen here.
Monday, June 28, 1999
A week which started with big groups of deep feeding whales, and ended with many surface feeding adults. During the first part of last week we had many humpback whales in the area, working in big groups and primarily deep feeding. Most of the whales were juveniles, although more and more mother-calf pairs have been appearing. We have now seen Octave and Pisces with calves, and have seen Web, Apostrophe, and Moray and their calves, all in the past week.
 Near the end of the week more adults started to appear. Friday we had a spectacular a surface feeding group (see photo of sand eels) which included Pepper, Loon, Fern, Isthmus, Barb, Bandit, Peninsula, and Echo.
We have also seen the return of Tiara, the 1983 male calf of Solo. Tiaras fluke is twisted 90 degrees from normal, the result of a long net entanglement. Tiara has long been known for his curious behavior. Saturday morning he headed right for the whale watch boats, and spent the better part of an hour with his head on one side, and his scarred tail on the other side.
Other whales sighted in the past week include Nail, Dross, Sabre, Techtonic, Bolide, Venom, Grackle, Teapot, Sting Ray, Onyx, Division, Trajectory, Stellar, Pele, Fan, Nile, Fragment, Grommet, Abraision.
Monday, June 21, 1999
The past week has looked remarkably like the fall of 1998. More and more we are seeing groups of 3-7 humpbacks together, rushing around, and clearly feeding on sub-surface prey. This has led to some pretty spectacular concentrations of whales in a tight area yesterday we had almost 20 humpbacks within a few hundred yards!
We are starting to see a few more mother-calf pairs, which have been relatively rare so far this year, and several adults we had not previously seen this year have moved into the area. Whales sighted included Compass and calf, Scratch and Calf, Fan, Tornado, Pepper, Echo, Dome, Tulip, Colt, Thalassa, Loon, Stellar, Taper, Trajectory, Entropy, Black Hole, Churn, Simian, and many more.
Monday, June 14, 1999
 Be sure to check out the most recent photos in our WCNE Photo Album. There has been some amazing feeding activity this month.
The up and down pattern of the past few weeks has continued through the end of the most recent week, with many whales around seen throughout the period. The week started with several whales around doing a fair amount of feeding. By mid-week, however, a strong weather front came through, and appeared to disperse both the whales and their prey.
In the last few days of the week we had large swells and the whales were spread out. By Saturday, however, numbers were back up. Saturday afternoon we saw miles and miles of surface sand eel schools, and had a lot of our younger humpback whales lunge feeding through those schools. Despite dense fog on Sunday, whales were abundant enough so that we still found a large number of both humpback and fin whales lunge feeding.
Whales seen included Partition and her calf, Dusky and her calf, Inferno, Reaper, Grommet, Nile, Firefly, Echo, Fan, Bolide, Entropy, Tear, Trajectory (first sightings since calf year in 1995!), Whisk, Rocker, Ase, Nail, Stellar, Vader, Alphorn, Crown, Reflection, Batcave, Bric-a-Brac, Abrasion, Touchdown, Falcon, Loon, Black Hole, Taper, Ganesh, and many more.
Monday, June 7, 1999
An interesting week where whales appeared to leave and then come back. The latter part of last week was somewhat slow. We still had about 15 humpback whales around, but they were being elusive and staying down for a long time.
How quickly things change! Saturday morning we were back up to 40 whales in the area. We suspect these whales are following food up and down Stellwagen Bank. Much of the activity is centering around big groups that are feeding deep in the water column, although we did see surface feeding on Saturday afternoon and this morning, and there were acres of surface sand eel schools evident on the Bank today.
We are also starting to see our first long-term associations of the year: Hancock and Skewer (two males, both born in 1991), Salt and Cardhu (two adult females), Nimbus and Sword (an adult female and an adult male) have all been seen often together.
Whales seen in the past week include: Black Hole, Extreme, Bilbo, Salt, Cardhu, Mural, Wyoming, Tear, Loon, Reaper, Alphorn, Firefly, Ase, Tornado, Tribble, Rocker, Whisk, Apostrophe and her calf, Grommet, Entropy, and Nile.
Monday, May 31, 1999
 An amazing week with some of the best lunge feeding we have seen in years. On Wednesday and Thursday of last week we had a group of 6-8 animals lunge feeding together. The group included included Salt, Cardhu, Mural, Crown, Owl, and several others.
These groups would come flying through the surface with up to 8 open mouths chasing their bait. It is the largest lunge feeding group we have seen since May, 1992. Interestingly, that group was also keyed around Salt, Cardhu, and Mural! It is amazing to see the same whales, after not being together for up to 7 years, forming a group at the same time of year to feed in the same way!
Otherwise, there is still much bait around, and many feeding whales. More juveniles also showing up all the time. On Sunday Beacon, last years calf of Echo, made her first appearance and played with our boat for long periods of time in both the morning and the afternoon. Other whales we have seen include the first sighting of the year of Ember, Reaper, Wyoming, Nimbus, Sword, Pele, Black Hole, Loon, Thalassa, Molson, Isthmus, Tear, Geometry, Grommet, Vader, Churn, Reflection, Relampago, Grackle, Falcon, and many others.
Monday, May 24, 1999
 Were coming off an interesting week with its own downs and ups! Last week was dominated by groups of 3-6 humpback whales together, rushing around a tight area and apparently feeding on sand eels in the lower part of the water column. However, as the week progressed, the numbers of whales started to decline. In a few days we went from having close to 70 humpbacks to having only 15 or so by Friday.
Most of the whales were younger, also indicating a lowered amount of prey resource. Then, on Saturday morning, we found ourselves in the midst of acres of surface schools of sand eels, with only three young humpbacks where all the fish were. Even they were ignoring the massive amount of prey, as they were seen to repeatedly swim right through big schools without any feeding behavior. By the afternoon of that day, though, all the adults had found the prey. When we left in the afternoon, there were close to 30 humpbacks surface feeding within a one mile area!
As the week closed on Sunday, we once again were surrounded by many feeding whales. Individuals seen included Apostrophe with a new calf (her second since her birth in 1985), Alphorn, Vader, Stellar, Black Hole, Owl, Crystal, Reaper, Loon, Crown, Relampago, Entropy, Springboard, Churn, Wyoming, Racoon, Reflection, Mallet, Abrasion, Ase, Black Hole, Venom, Colorado, Putter, Wizard, Mural and many others.
Tuesday, May 18, 1999
 Wow, what a week! The whales just keep getting better and better. We estimate that we got close to 100 humpback whale identifications over the past week, and had close to 70 present on any given day. We only saw one new mother-calf pair, Sickle with a calf, but saw almost everyone else we had been seeing, and many new whales for the year.
We are also seeing a fair number of last year's calves return already, which is a good sign for a strong survival among 1998 offspring. We have already seen Mallet, Cardhu's 1998 calf; Aztec, Hercules' 1998 calf; Basmati, Isthmus' 1998 calf; Tabasco, Salt's 1998 calf; and Ganesh, Loon's 1998 calf.
We saw numerous fin whales (see photo) and some surface feeding around right through Saturday, but we saw a really interesting shift from Saturday to Sunday. Starting Sunday morning, the whales started to group up into the kind of large, dynamic associated groups we saw so much of in 1998, but had so rarely seen before that. Perhaps not surprising then, many of the whales which were in those groups appeared over the past week. The big charging groups continued through Monday. It will be interesting to see how long these groups last.
Individuals identified include (among many other far too numerous to mention): Isthmus, Loon, Fragment, Venom, Dyad and calf, Dusky and calf, Sickle and calf, Mars, Nile, Seal, Amazon, Walrus, Right Bar, Cats Paw, Black Hole, Echo, Tornado, Springboard, Colorado, Crown, Rocker, Mural, Dome, Pumba, Calderas, Bedlamer, Glo, Grommet, Simian, and many, many more.
Monday, May 10, 1999
 A week of rain and fog has kept us somewhat limited over the past week, but that's spring in New England. Over the past weekend it appeared that things whale activity was spreading out and quieting down from our activity of past few weeks, but today's trip aboard our research vessel showed us that this may not be the case. More and more young whales have been showing up, many of whom we do not recognize in the field, and today adults were prevalent as well.
There has been less surface feeding and fewer dolphins around, but quite a bit of curious behavior from the juveniles. It is not unusual for adults to move out in May, but what we saw today indicates that they may be staying around for a bit longer! Whales identified include: Salt, Nile, Stellar, Foxfire, Photon, Ganesh, Tornado, Meerkat, Giraffe, Midnight, Sabre, Ase, Rapier, Bolide, Fern, Pele, Vader, Churn, Tunguska, Glo, Firefly, Timberline, Colt, and many more.
Monday, May 3, 1999
 The amazing spring continues, as whale concentrations remain spectacular. On a full day trip on Saturday, May 1 (our benefit Earth Day Whale Watch), we identified an even 50 humpbacks, and didn't get anywhere near identifying them all!
Mother-calf pairs continue to appear; yesterday we photographed Dusky with her third calf. More and more adults are also appearing. Surface feeding continues as a rule, although we have also seen a lot of flipper slapping, breaching, and lob-tailing as well. Among the many IDs of humpbacks we got over the weekend were Dusky and calf, Flamingo, Fern, Bilbo, Mural, Fist, Thalassa, Epee, Dome, Nile, Amazon, Mars, Onyx, Sting Ray, Sabre, Thread, Isthmus, Milky Way, Pylon, Tear, Appaloosa (fluke photo seen here), Reflection, Caber, Whisk, Batcave, Teapot, Raccoon, Vulture, and Wyoming.
Fin whales also remain abundant, and have been seen surface lunge feeding on a regular basis. However, on Saturday afternoon and Sunday all day the whales were more dispersed than we had seen at any other point during the spring. We have also failed to see any white-sided dolphins since the middle of last week. The dolphins always move offshore sometime in early May, and it appears that movement may have taken place.
Monday, April 26, 1999
Whales continue to be amazing here, perhaps the densest spring concentrations we have seen since the early 1990s. On the last three days we were out, we estimated a minimum of 30, and probably closer to 50, humpbacks in the area. Lunge feeding has been continuing almost non-stop. The whales are a mixture of adults and juveniles, making for some interesting social dynamics between the age classes. As is typical for spring, there is much rushing around between feeding locations; the whales always seem to be in a hurry during this time of year!
Mother-calf pairs are starting to appear. So far we have seen Anvil, Dyad, and one female we didn't recognize, with a calf. Some unusual whales have also made an appearance. We have identified Fist, the 1986 calf of Moray, for the first time since 1990, and Lasso (who has spent most of his recent years off Nova Scotia) for the first time since 1994. Also among the whales identified: Zeppelin, Firefly, Thread, Rapier, Reaper, Thalassa, Wizard, Skateboard, Tobasco, Collision, Flamingo, Funnel, Meerkat, Crystal, Mural, Cajun, Nimbus, Sword, Vulture, Purity, Salt, Cardhu, Onyx, Milky Way, Reflection, and many, many more!
Fin whales have also been abundant, and have been doing some spectacular lunge feeding. We have been seeing almost 1,000 white-sided dolphins every day that we have been out.
Monday, April 19, 1999
As we have moved into mid-April, we are now seeing a few more whales return every day. As usual, the first whales back are juveniles and those adult females which had calved the previous year. Males and some adult females without calves are usually the next ones back. We appeared to be moving into the "second phase" during the past week, and we have identified Bandit, Crystal, Sabre, Sword, and Thread, all adult males. New females are also being seen daily. Over the past 48 hours we have identified Nimbus, Onyx, Milky Way, Purity, Isthmus, Leukos, Loon, Rapier, and Nile.
Concentrations have been spectacular; mixed in with the 30 humpbacks are many finback whales, up to 1,000 dolphins on some days, and minke whales. There have been numerous signs of marine life; birds have been staying around the whales, and whales (both humpback and finback whales) have been surface feeding regularly.
We also completed a banner day today with a sighting of a skim-feeding right whale that was definitely NOT "Baldy," the whale we saw off of our research vessel last week.
Wednesday, April 13, 1999
 Last week WCNE staff were very fortunate to witness more spectacular skim feeding from an endangered Northern Right Whale. And in an exciting twist, after reviewing the WCNE photos, New England Aquarium staff (who maintain the North Atlantic Right Whale Identification Catalog) have identified the whale we saw as "Baldy", so named due to the few callosities on her head, which are vital in identification of individual right whales.
Baldy was first observed with a calf way back in 1974, and has been seen with five calves since (most recently in 1997). Interestingly, she was also photographed by WCNE staff within a mile of the same location skim feeding on April 8, 1998, almost exactly a year to the date!
We were able to get some good pictures of the feeding session. Right whales feed exclusively on tiny plankton, which occur in very dense swarms during the spring. In order to exploit these swarms, right whales feed by "skimming" through their prey patch. When they open their mouth, there is a huge triangular gap in the baleen at the front of the mouth.
 As the whale swims forward, water enters the mouth through the gap, and is pulled through the baleen by suction formed at the outside of the mouth. The hairs on the inside of the baleen trap the plankton as the water passes through. Whales will sometimes feed like this for hours, closing their mouth to swallow and clear the baleen every so often.
The top of the head, which is thin, has several yellowish "callosities" on it, hardened skin patches which are unique and permanent for each individual whale. In one view, the distinctive V-shaped spout of the right whale can also be clearly seen.
Wednesday, April 7, 1999
On Tuesday, April 6 we were able to get offshore for our first all day survey of the year in Silver II, our research vessel. What a day it was sightings totaling 30+ humpbacks, 20+ fin whales, 300-500 Atlantic white-sided dolphins, and a surface feeding right whale!
 The day was perfect for a survey calm seas, amazingly clear visibility. We started only 8-9 miles offshore with about 12-15 humpbacks and an equal number of fin whales lunge feeding. The humpbacks were mainly young whales, many of which we did not recognize in the field. One we did recognize was Amazon, last year's calf of Nile. While seeing Amazon means that she survived the critical weaning period, she was heavily scarred, and appeared to have freed herself from a fishing gear entanglement. Her trust was still there, however, as she almost immediately approached our boat for a close look.
After working in that area for several hours, we headed a few miles further offshore, and found an area with at least 20 humpbacks and 15 fin whales. This time, however, the humpbacks were not all young. Instead, we found lots of big adult whales, including Salt, Cardhu, Fern, Mural, Staff, Funnel, Echo, Dome, Thalassa, Loon, and Hancock, all surface feeding. In addition, there were about 7 juvenile whales in the area apparently following the adults around; these included Tunguska (2 years old), Abrasion (2 years old), Eyebrow (probably 3 years old), Shears (1 year old), and Stellar (3 years old) among others.
Near the feeding humpbacks was a skim-feeding right whale. Although whale watch boats can not approach right whales, since they are so endangered, Silver II is permitted to approach closely to photo-identify these animals for research purposes. The whale was feeding on a thick plankton patch at the surface, and we were quickly treated to great views of this very rare whale (watch for photos here soon!). We only stayed with the animal long enough to obtain good identification photos, to insure we did not disturb it.
All over all, it was certainly a great start to the 1999 Silver II research season!
Monday, April 5, 1999
 April 1 always marks the first day of the WCNE field season. Our research vessel, Silver II, is always launched on that day, and whale watching starts soon after. As usual, our boat did go in on the 1st, but rough seas have prevented us from taking the boat out to whales in the first few days of the month.
However, we were able to get out to Stellwagen, courtesy of the New England Aquariums whale watch boat, which had its first trips over the weekend. Saturday, April 3, was certainly a spectacular start to the season 13-15 humpbacks, 5-7 fin whales including a cow/calf pair, approximately 200 white-sided dolphins, a minke whale, and a surface-feeding northern right whale (the rarest whale in the world)!
The humpbacks were somewhat spread out, and many were staying down for a long times (7-10 minutes). Based on several cues, we suspect these whales were mainly subsurface feeding. Most of our time was spent in an area with several adults Pepper, Thalassa, Whisk, and 9806, all females who had calves in 1998 (these are often the first returnees). By the end of the day Thalassa was starting to feed on the surface, and we were treated to several nice views of bubble feeding.
We were out again on Sunday April 4 with the Aquarium once again, although rough seas prevented the same thoroughness of data collection as the previous day. However, we were still able to see 5-7 humpbacks, several fin whales, and another sighting of a feeding right whale (we don't know if it was the same whale or a different one).
We are hopeful that in the next few days we will get a day calm enough for our own boat to be out for a full-day survey. Watch here for more details soon!
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