April 26, 2010

The 2010 season initially started somewhat slow, but as of mid-April, it looks like things are heating up fast. We got our first cruises unusually early, when reports of whales and an unusually warm stretch in mid-March caused one of our whale watch companies, Boston Harbor Cruises, to start our season unusually early. Unfortunately, reports of early season feeding humpbacks were not verified, although we did find a few humpbacks, as well as numerous fin whales, minke whales, harbor porpoises, and Atlantic white-sided dolphins.

For the next few weeks, whale watches remained few, and whales somewhat sparse until far south - just off the tip of Cape Cod. However, because highly endangered North Atlantic right whales are present in the spring, there are serious restrictions on the speeds that any vessel larger than 65 feet long can go through this zone. Right whales are slow movers, and are highly vulnerable to being hit by ships. While these speed restrictions are a critical protection that we worked hard for, they can limit our ability to explore.

In early April, though, we also started cruises aboard the Mysticete, our 42 foot long research vessel. Whales were becoming a bit more abundant, although still sightings were sparser than we had hoped. On our first Mysticete cruise of the year, though, we traversed most of Stellwagen Bank, and came up with some interesting sightings. Two adult whales were seen that day - Walrus, a male seen since 1979, and Zipper, likely born in the early 80's. Zipper was kick feeding - blowing bubbles while down, then slapping her tail on the surface to stun her prey, and re-surfacing through the center of her bubble net. There were lots of diving gannets nearby; gannets are large seabirds whose presence suggests baitfish prey for both birds and whales. We were also concerned to find the 2008 calf of Ventisca, seen only in early April last year, with prominent propeller scars along her right flank, though they looked healed. This is likely a wound sustained last year, and we hope for the best for this young whale. While we ended the day with four humpbacks, six fin whales, seven minke whales, and over 100 dolphins, the activity was widely dispersed.

Last week, we had the Mysticete out again, and found much more concentrated activity along the northern tip of the Bank. We were able to identify seven different humpback whales, and saw some amazing surface feeding from Bat, a female known since the early 1980s. Several other juvenile humpbacks were nearby; fin whales were prevalent and lunging all day long; and we saw well over 500 Atlantic white-sided dolphins. We were even able to photograph one dolphin with an orange tag on its dorsal fin; we suspect this animal was re-floated by the International Fund for Animal Welfares stranding team on Cape Cod after a mass stranding there earlier this winter. We have sent them photos and sightings data, and are awaiting word from as to whether the tag is theirs.

This weekend, Whale Center staff and interns working on whale watch boats out of Boston and Gloucester saw even more activity on the northern end of the Bank. On Sunday, they saw as many as 30 humpbacks, as well as other species, surface feeding on abundant prey. Our first three mother-calf pairs of the year were seen. Cajun, the 1998 calf of Cascade, came back with her second calf ever. The other is even more special: Salt, the grand lady of Stellwagen, returned for her 35th straight year (yes, you read that right!) with her 12th recorded calf, the most ever recorded from a single female. A third mother-calf awaits identification. Other whales we saw included Broomball, Geometry, Glo-stick, Mars (her 31st year back), Nazca, Patchwork, Pinpoint, Ravine, Shark (now 27 years old), and Tracer; other identifications are awaiting confirmation. Things are looking up!