Humpback Archives

This was quite a weekend. Memorial day 2016 ranged from HOT HOT HOT to cool and rainy. Something for everyone.

Saturday was the best day and my original plan was to head to the beach. But after some thought I decided on a whale watch. I figured if it was 90 degrees and the first weekend of the summer that I would be one of many who would be heading to the beach. So Instead I headed to Plymouth and the Captain John Boats.

I stopped for lunch at Cabby Shack where I spotted the wall art quoted in the title.

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I just like the whimsy.

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Once I had lunch out of the way I headed over to the boat. I was very early but once again I was concerned about summer crowds. Turns out it wasn’t too bad.

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Whale's Tail-2a

If it was 90 degrees on shore the temperature dropped like a stone once we left the harbor. I was glad I brought a warm hoodie. The trip took us the the same place we always seem to end up, the tip of Cape Cod just off Provincetown. There, with the Pilgrim Tower in the background, we spotted out first and only whale of the day.

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It was a juvenile humpback. Our Naturalist estimated it was the calves’s first year without its mother. A sighting of such a young animal is rare according to the naturalist. Once the more mature whales arrive you don’t see these “yearlings” so often.

Whale's Tail

Our “little guy” was very active. He’d surface, cruise then we’d see him “hump” his back, the tail would start up and then there it was, the fluke indicating he was going into a dive. He’s be gone about 5-6 minutes then do it all again.

Here’s the back

There’s the back

He comes the tail

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And there’s the fluke.

There’s the Tail

What a great day!

A friend asked me what whale watching was like. The question caught me off guard. I was on my way to Plymouth to do exactly that, take a Whale Watch trip with Capt’n John.

As we pulled out of Plymouth Harbor I looked around at all the people on the boat and thought about the question. It’s a lot like fishing. You go out with your bait , toss in your line and …wait and wait…and wait and if you’re lucky you get a bite and if you’re really lucky you get a fish.

Well when you go whale watching you get on a boat and ride, and ride and ride some more. Finally someone spots a spout or blow and the boat slows down. Now you wait in one spot while everyone looks around the boat to see if the whale is going to surface any place close. If your lucky you’ll see another blow and maybe a back.

The jackpot or whale watching’s equivalent of landing the fish is having the huge mammal cruise along side the boat giving you a real good look. To borrow a phrase from Animal Planet’s show Call of the Wildman; “That’s live action , Baby!”

Just off the tip of Cape Cod we got we got our first blow with the Pilgrim Tower of Provincetown in the background. Several Minke Whales were passing through. Minke whales are one of the smallest of the baleen whales, growing to only 24-26 ft. Baleen whales are filter feeders. They strain water though the baleen hairs and Krill and other small marine creatures are captured there. Hard to believe feeding this way can result in such a large animal.

They were small and kept their distance (kind of like a nibble in fishing). It was enough to get everyone excited but not close enough for pictures. So we motored on.

It didn’t take too much longer before we got another blow. This time it was a Fin Back Whale and there was more than one. The naturalist kept telling us that the fin backs were the greyhounds of whales around here (Massachusetts) but they didn’t seem to be in a big rush. They cruised along near the surface doing shallow dives and short blows.

At one point one of them cruised right next to the boat . You could actually see it as it began to come to the surface which made timing the picture for when it surfaced pretty easy.

The naturalist was using the size of our boat to estimate the length of the whales. She said they were all around 80 ft. long.

I don’t know how many different whales we saw. I lost track.

I checked Capt. John’s web sites but they didn’t post our trip. 🙁 No humpbacks today. They are my favorite. When they dive you get the classic tail flukes but when Fin Backs dive there’s no tail. It makes me think of a submarine.