Yankeee Whale Watching - September 7, 2008

By admin

The past couple weeks have been interesting. We’ve had ups and downs with the weather, and ups and downs with the sightings as well. Our days continued to be incredible for the beginning of this reporting period, as you’ll see in the daily detail below. But then something changed, seemingly overnight. Oftentimes, a major weather system will shift the ocean currents, which shifts the nutrients and bait fish in the water. That, in turn, shifts the whales because the whales will go where the food is. Typically, this is a gradual thing occurring over a couple days or so, other times it is like someone flipping a switch. I wish I could dive on the Bank when this happens, or that we could record various conditions throughout the water column on a daily basis. I’d love to know what changed and the exact conditions that trigger distribution shifts of large whales throughout the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary.

After a few days of the slow-down, things got back to normal with blows in every direction and a lot of fantastic Humpback sightings! Just when it was getting exciting, Tropical Storm Hanna arrived and created high winds and high seas. Safety is paramount at Yankee Fleet and we decided it best to stay in the past few days, also fending off queasiness for our passengers! Now I’m itching to get back out there on Stellwagen Bank and see what affect this recent weather system has had on the bait fish and the whales.

The bird sightings over the past couple weeks have been up and down as well, further indicating that the bait fish were shifting with changing ocean currents. On the best days, we’re still seeing the usual suspects including Juvenile Northern Gannets, Greater Shearwaters, a few Sooty Shearwaters here and there, Common Terns, Wilson’s Storm Petrels, and both the Herring and Black-Backed Gulls.

Aug 24 2008
7-9 Minkes, and 10-12 Humpbacks including Lavalier, Venom, Tear, Etch-A-Sketch, and Pinch.

Aug 26 2008
12 Humpbacks including Nile, Pepper, Percussion and an unknown that breached a few times on our way in!

Aug 27 2008
6-7 Minkes, and 11 Humpbacks including Anchor, Blackout, Komodo, Lavalier, Fulcrum, Etch-A-Sketch, and Pinpoint.

Aug 28 2008
1 Minke, and 9-11 Humpbacks including Nile, Pepper, Echo and calf, Anchor, and Gimlet. One of the Humpbacks breached over 18 times!

Aug 29 2008
4-5 Minkes, and 5 Humpbacks including Anchor, Lavalier, and Etch-A-Sketch.

Aug 30 2008
Gray Seal in Gloucester’s Inner Harbor! Superpod of 250-300 Atlantic White-Sided Dolphins! 3 Minkes, and 5 Humpbacks including Lavalier, Jabiru, and Etch-A-Sketch (who reportedly moved over 6 miles away from where we spotted her in just over one hour). Other Humpbacks sighted last week reportedly much further south on the Bank the past few days.

Aug 31 2008
3-4 Minkes, 7 Humpbacks that were taking very long dives (4 of which never showed a fluke and remain unidentified) including Echo and calf, and Tectonic. 4-5 other Humpbacks reported a couple miles away.

Sept 1 2008
1 Minke, and 10-11 Humpbacks including Tectonic, Echo and calf, Lavalier, Anchor, Percussion, Jabiru, Rune, and Colt.

Sept 3 2008
1 Minke, 11-13 Humpbacks including Echo and calf, Tectonic, Draco and Percussion.

Whale watching is sailing everyday through October. Trip times are Monday thru Friday 1:30-5:30 and weekend afternoons (call for times). Reservations are suggested so give us a call at 800-942-5464 or click below for online tickets. Come out and join us before this incredible season comes to an end!

It’s a whale world,
Jodi Sivak
Lead Naturalist