Humpbacks

Photo by Michael

We went on a whale watch out of Gloucester on Friday for Lisa’s birthday, and the sightings were really amazing. The first humpback we found did a spinning full breach; it’s unbelievable to see a whale in mid-air. Over the afternoon we saw about 15 humpbacks close to the boat, including two humpback calves, as well as several fin whales and several minke whales further away. We saw the humpbacks swimming in formation in groups of 2, 3, and 4. A group of 4 surfaced close to our boat and swam directly under our boat from one side to the other. One of the whales rolled over in the water to show us his flippers, and another came straight up with his whole head out of the water. We got very used to the pattern of seeing (and hearing) the whale’s blowhole spouting water into the air, then seeing their back with dorsal fin curving out of the water for ages, and finally the elegant tail on best view before a long dive.


Photo by Michael

Individual humpbacks were first named in 1976 when a fisherman noticed that the whales around his boat two days in a row appeared to be the same. He told a naturalist he knew, who went out with him and realized that the tail coloration could uniquely identify individual humpbacks. Those first two were named Salt and Pepper, and one of the whales we saw on Friday was Pepper, still summering at Stellwagen Bank 32 years later.


Photo by Michael

The calves look large when you see them on their own, and then you see an adult and realize how small the calves are comparatively. The adult whales are up to 60 or 70 feet long, and move incredibly gracefully. We also saw hundreds of seabirds, mostly gulls and shearwaters, in far higher concentrations near the whales than you see them on the shore. Combined with perfect weather and a very smooth ocean, we could not ask for a better way to spend the afternoon.