Whaletales

2005-02-23T14:06:00.000-08:00

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FISSURE #0489, Male Born 1984

TALON #0305 Female born 1981

INTRODUCTION

2005-02-22T13:39:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Whale Tales. This blog is currently under construction. It is more like a book than a blog because it reads from the beginning down rather than the newest entries being on the top. I will be rearanging things that don't work, rewriting awkward parts, tweaking it here and there and slowly adding further whale encounters with different individuals. I do appreciate questions and suggestions.

24 years worth of notes, observations and photographs of marine mammals I have studied make a very large pile. If I stacked all my notebooks and albums on top of each other it would be over 6' tall. Here they all sit in my office, threatening, like those National Geographic magazines in the attic, to collapse the floor with their weight. I have made many attempts to write a book but end up feeling stilted and isolated... I am not a writer by choice anymore than I am a computer geek or blogger. They are tools.

In that six feet of words and pictures there are stories, stories about seals that I have watched for eight years or more (I have started another blog for them), stories about humpback whales that have captured my heart, stories about how I ended up spending most of my adult life doing this. And they aren't doing any good making my office floor groan... so here goes.

In this whaleblog, I will upload photographs and tell the stories of my encounter with whales during my two summers (1986 and 1987) as naturalist on a whale watch boat. Humpback whales can be identified by the patterns of white and black on the underside of their fluke. There is Fissure, Olympia, Tusk and Talon, humpback whales that we met repeatedly and who seemed to enjoy our encounter as much as we did.

I have set up a table of contents that will help you find the major parts of the story. There will be a link to beginning of each individual whales story n the links bar on the side. There is also a link to a map of Jeffrey's Ledge, the area we found whale, and a link to a brief description of whale biology.

I hope people will ask me questions and give suggestions to help me clarify what and how I say things. I hope other naturalists who are doing long term studies of an animal species will add their thoughts.

Jane Goodall has been my inspiration and I dedicate this blog to her.

FISSURE #0489, MALE born 1984

2005-02-20T13:21:00.000-08:00

INTRODUCTION AND ENCOUNTERS WITH FISSURE IN 1986

Fissures fluke
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

During those two summers of 1986 and 1987, while I worked as naturalist on a whale watch boat in Southern Maine our boat would go out to Jeffrey's Ledge and that is where we met Fissure. We knew he was a two year old in 1986 when we first saw him, because he had been seen as a calf with his mother Veil #0130 in 1984. They were in the Allied whale catalogue along with over 6000 other North Atlantic humpback whales! Over the summers of 1986 and 1987, we encountered this young male six times.Each time we met him an amazing interaction occured. I will tell the stories of these meetings.

This is how Fissure's fluke looked in 1986

And the picture below is how his fluke looked in 1987

The large patterns have remained the same. In 1986 his fluke had an orange tinge to it, probably from small diatoms clinging to his skin. He had gotten rid of them by the next year, but picked up what look like periwinkles. Enough had stayed the same so we knew it was the same whale.

FISSURE #0489, 2 YEAR OLD MALE *

2005-02-20T13:10:00.000-08:00

INTRODUCTION AND ENCOUNTERS WITH FISSURE IN 1986

Fissures fluke
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

1986 First Meeting with Fissure 8/31/86

2005-02-20T12:11:00.000-08:00

Both the captain and I were new to whale watching and we fumbled at first. He had worked on fishing boats, I had taught school and been an observer on research vessels but had no experience as naturalist on a boat. It was soon clear that the captain's great boat handling skills, friendships with the local fishermen, and affinity with the whales made him a natural. He seemed to know where they would come up next and how to approach without disturbing them. My teaching skills came in handy, but most of all I was totally intrigued by the nature of whales and couldn't wait to go out for the next adventure. There was so much to see and learn. We were a great team!

By the end of that first summer we had a lot of experience under our belt. We had seen many different marine animals: ocean sunfish, basking sharks, tuna, dolphins,seals, finbacks, minkes, right whales and humpbacks. We had seen all kinds of exciting behaviors... tail lobbing, breaching, flipper slapping. And we had begun to identify several individual humpbacks by taking pictures of the bottom of their fluke (tail) and sending them in to be matched at Allied Whale (they house the catalogue of North Atlantic Humpbacks). We felt we had seen just about everything...

It was a flat calm, sunny late August day and we headed out to the North end of Jeffrey's Ledge on the advise of a fisherman who was out there already. We came upon two humpbacks blowing a few hundred yards apart. One turned out to be Notch, a mature whale with a ragged tail that had been seen by various whale watch boats for the last 6 summers. We shut down to drift with Notch for a while, losing track of the second one.

Fissure06 8/31/86
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

Suddenly ...WHOOOOSH... right beside us, so close that I couldn't focus, the fluke of the second whale. The thunderous sound of 100 people running to that side of the boat must have been very satisfying to this young rambunctious whale.

Fissure03 8/31/86
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

He dove but we could still see the white of his flippers glowing way beneath the surface. Then we saw him reposition underwater so he was "standing" upright. He rose slowly back to the surface and "spyhopped" obviously looking us over.

A whales eyes are placed on each side of their broad head and they can only see binocularly by looking down. The best way for Fissure to get a good look at us was to spyhop (like he is doing in the picture above). We were looking as intently at him as he was at us. It was a very quiet, magical moment.

If you click on the picture above it will take you to a link on flickr where you can see a larger labelled version of this shot. You are looking at his bottom jaw, with barnacles strewn in amongst the rorquals or pleats on his throat. These pleats expand to hold the water while the whale sieves the mouthful of plankton out through its baleen. The green shapes under the water are his huge (15') white flippers.

Fissure11 8/31/86
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

He dropped back down to a horizontal position and glided along the full length of the boat, insuring we all got a good look. He was so close we could hear the water gliding off his back with a whisssh. When he exhaled it was explosive; when he inhaled it sounded like someone whistling in a big hollow tube... wonderful sounds, hard to represent accurately with words but I can still hear them in my head.

In this picture his blowhole (right above the person with red hair) was clamped firmly shut; he had just inhaled. You can see the fleshy ridge that forms a V around his nostrils and works as a splash guard. Whales nostrils (and those of most marine mammals) are closed when relaxed and must be pulled open to breathe.

That summer, we called him "Barney" because he carried a "pet" barnacle, the white dot on his back, and we could identify him as soon as we saw it. (His fluke was the true identifier, since barnacles are likely to fall off when Humpbacks migrate to warmer waters).

Fissure14 8/31/86
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

In the Gulf of Maine, the ocean is opaque with life... phytoplankton and zoo plankton exist in such quantity that you can rarely see more than 50 or 60 feet underwater. It helped that it was flat calm so we could see much more of Fissure than if it were choppy... a perfect day for such an encounter. He lay parallel to us for a bit (perhaps scoping us out with one eye), then slowly turned to face us. We were amazed to see him move such a huge body with just gentle gesture of tail and flipper! He was just a younster, a "mere" 35-40 feet long, when full grown he would be 50+ feet! He lay there, white 15' flippers spread like wings, balancing and keeping himself in place. We just looked at each other in silence for several minutes.

In this picture his blow hole is slightly open as he takes a occasional breath. Baleen whales have two blow holes, while toothed whales (dolphins and orca) have just one.

Fissure15 8/31/86
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

He let his tail sink languidly until he was back in a spy-hopping position. We could see the rorquals (pleats) of his lower jaw, festooned with barnacles. That is the captains hand as he climbed to get a better view.

Fissure17 8/31/86
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

Next Fissure spread out his flippers again skulling a little then lying there like a bird soaring. The flipper glowed a beautiful greenish white beneath the surface.

Humpback whales are called Megaptera novaeangliae in latin which means big winged New Englander. With his wings spread he looked huge and we had to keep reminding ourselves that, being only two years old, he was still a "small" whale.

It had been a 3 hour encounter and we were already late to get home on time. No one wanted to leave including Fissure. But, when he turned away, the captain felt it was safe to put the engine in gear and back slowly away. It was a very animated group on the two hour trip home, comparing remembrances and excitement.

1986 Second Meeting With Fissure 9/18/86

2005-02-20T11:15:00.000-08:00

Fissure03 9/18/86
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

Two weeks passed before we met Fissure again. This time the sea was choppier and we found it much harder to find whales and figure out what they were doing. We were lucky to see two whales in the distance, blowing about 1/2 mile from each other. It appeared they were diving and coming up at about the same times getting closer together.

We couldn't chose which to focus on, but when we came to the closest, we recognized it was a well known adult female named Olympia. When she dove we went to the other and sure enough it was Fissure. While watching Fissure, Olympia came over to join him (and us), the two dove in unison, came up close together and circled the boat.Fissure's dorsal is the closest, Olympia is behind him.

Fis-Olympia 9/18/86
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

Olympia was a well know matriarch, who had been seen since 1979. Between 1983 and 1996 Olympia had 5 calves.
Two of those (Anchor born 1983 and Cascade born 1987) had calves of their own making Olympia a grandmother! Anchor had her calf 1990 (when she was 7), and Cascade had hers in 1996 (when she was 9). So scientist could determine first hand that Humpback females are quite young when they have their first calf. There are many benefits to being able to recognize individuals and recording their life histories over a LONG period of time.

There was no evidence that Fissure was related to Olympia in anyway, they just seemed to be enjoying each others company, diving in sync for over an hour.

Olympia09 9/18/86
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

We drifted with Olympia and Fissure for about 20 minutes and things were pretty quiet. The two whales would dive for 7 or 8 minutes, then come up and blow a few times and dive again. We suspected they were feeding, perhaps cooperatively since they stayed near each other and came up at the same time.

Suddenly Olympia slapped her tail on the surface of the water with an explosive whack! It was a total surprise and all we could figure was she was alerting Fissure (or us?) that she had had enough and was heading off to feed.

Fissure08 9/18/86
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

Fissure brought up his tail for a deep dive and we figured he was following her (you can barely see the lump of Olympia's dorsal in front and right of Fissure's fluke). The captain started up the engines and we headed over towards another whale we could see blowing in the distance....

Fissure13 9/18/86
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

We were taken by surprise when Fissure came sliding right alongside the boat! He was so close that we could see the whale lice on his back... those tiny red/orange things just in front of his dorsal.
Everyone ran pounding over to that side. Since it was mid-September there was plenty of room at the rail. Unfortunately kids were in school and there were very few to see this.

I am not sure how he got the scar on his dorsal, but along with his barnacle, we used it that summer to make the initial identification and then confirmed it when he fluked and showed his tail. If you look at the last two photos, you can see the difference between the pattern on his tail and on Olympias.

86 9-18 Fissure36
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

He looked us over:"spyhopping", as if to make sure he had our undivided attention and say "watch this". Then he dove ... we could see his dark shape and the brilliant white of his flippers as he passed under us and disappeared into depths beyond visibility.......

86 9-18 Fissure20
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

People began staring down into the water, eyes wide... you could see a huge white blob rising slowly from the darkness, getting bigger and bigger until it broke the surface with a loud bluuub sound.

86 9-18 Fissure21
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

Fissure's dark shape followed close behind and he popped up right next to it.

86 9-18 Fissure22
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

He wagged his big head back and forth ... a big leisurely gesture that made the water slosh around him.

86 9-18 Fissure23
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

Then he flopped slowly onto his side. His big mouth looked like he was smiling at us.... I wouldn't be surprised since he was definitely hamming it up for our benefit and was getting an uproarious response!

His upper jaw is closest to us and his eye would be just about where the swirl of water is.. right near where his mouth ends.

86 9-18 Fissure24
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

He dove under the boat again and we could see him going deeper and deeper until he was out of sight. Everyone ran to the other side.... it must have created a satisfying rumble to Fissure underneath us. Up came another bubble, pure white and tightly formed with little frothy bits softening the edges. As it got closer to the surface, it took on a wonderful green.

86 9-18 Fissure25
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

In all my years blowing bubbles in the bath tub, I have never been able to achieve anything like this! It remained a coherant mass about six feet across as it rose leisurely to the surface and then errupted, hissing as it dispersed.

It is thought that whales use what scientists call "bubble clouds" to confuse the small schooling fish that Humpbacks feed on. The fish clump and flee the bubble, forming a delectible mouthful for the whale to scoop up. In the Pacific, humpback whales are known for making bubble nets, a ring of small bubbles that look like a cyclone as they rise to the surface. Atlantic humpbacks blow these clouds. It would be fascinating if the Atlantic and Pacific groups learned the others techniques.

86 9-18 Fissure28
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

Up Fissure popped again next to his dissipating bubble.

Spinning around like a fashion model, he first showed us his upper jaw with the beautifully regular stove bolts and shiny skin.....

86 9-18 Fissure33
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

Then he turned the other way.... and showed us his lower jaw with its barnacles and rorquals .... the pleats that allow his throat to expand so he can take in the huge quantity of water needed to filter out the tiny copepods and krill that he feeds on. Fissure's small population of barnacles congregated under his "chin" since it had the least turbulence when he swams and you can imagine these barnacles could gather quite a meal from the tiny bits surged out of his mouth.

86 9-18 Fissure36
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

As I mentioned before, a whales eyes are placed in such a way that they can only see binocularly if they look down and a bit forward. It is thought that is why whales spy hop if they are curious about something above the surface of the water. And it was very clear that Fissure was curious: he spent a LONG time like this, turning slightly one way and then the other. We were all reaching out to him, waving, shouting ... you know.... all the weird things humans do when we get excited. He must have found us quite amusing..... we were whale watchers being watched and it wasn't clear who was performing for whom. It was an interesting sensation.

A bit of poetic liscense was used in the sequencing but all these pictures were taken on the same day... "never let the facts get in the way of a good story"

86 9-18 Fissure34
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

Once again Fissure kepts us way past the time we were scheduled to leave and so when Fissure sank slowly and submerged we carefully backed away and head for home.... some people kept watch off the stern and could see him "blowing" now and then in the distance.

on the way home
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

People were quiet, some sleeping, some chatting about what they had seen. One woman had caught my attention while we were with Fissure. She was not in a group and kept to herself, watching intently and quietly while everybody else was bubbling with excitement.

I was both worried and curious about her response so I sat with her on the ride home and heard her story. A couple of years before, a humpback had beached on Cape Cod. People came from all around, at first just to see such a huge creature washed ashore.

As it struggled to breathe, people began to empathize, related to it as a living being in distress, not just an oddity and were at a loss what to do. They got buckets and hauled water from the ocean, they soaked their beach towels to protect the whale's sensitive skin and keep it cool. But its struggle only became more intense, as its lungs and internal organs were slowly crushed by its own weight. People sang and talked to it, staying with it late into the night until it finally died. They all felt sad and helpless. To her our encounter with Fissure was a gift and she felt herself soaking in all his energy and aliveness.

1987 8/26 Fissure first sighting

2005-02-20T10:36:00.000-08:00

1987 GOT OFF TO A SLOW START:
We were ready by the time the 1987 season rolled around, but... the weather was not. We made one trip in May and saw Dolphins and a Minke whale but it was a teaser since it blew and rained so hard we couldn't go again for another two weeks.

6/16/87 NURSE AND FIVEJ
Finally on June 16th it cleared. The seas were still a little "lumpy" but we were eager to go and were lucky to encounter two humpback whales soon after we got to Jeffrey's Ledge. They travelled together for the hour we were with them, diving in sync and always coming up side-by-side. When I got home I was able to find them in the catalogue. They were two adult females: one Nurse who was first seen in 1979 and the other FiveJ first seen in 1983. Both had had calves, (as a matter of fact I had seen FiveJ with her calf the year before). This must have been a year off for them and I wondered if pregnant females seek out each others company in a loose sort of way?

1987 6-16 Nurse #0152 copy
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

This is Nurse "fluking up" to do a deep dive. Romantic as this photo may be, water dripping off her fluke and all, it is practically useless to a person trying to match it with pictures in the catalogue.... you would have to crane your head way over to see underneath.... hahaha. If you ever go on a whale watch and see a whale "fluking" wait a second longer until it's tail comes up more. I know this is Nurse because she showed her tail a few seconds later.

6/18/87 NURSE CONE AND DERECHA

1987 6-18 3whales copy
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

Two days later we met Nurse again. This time she was with two different adult females, Cone and Derecha. Like Nurse , I suspect these other two were in between calves, perhaps pregnant and taking the summer off.

When we came upon them they were "logging" at the surface, lying quietly close together blowing now and then. Whales are often seen resting at the surface. As we approached, Cone (the closest whale with the white dorsal)"wheeze blew" as if to say... that's close enough. We kept our distance and drifted along with them for a while.

1987 6-18 3 whales copy
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

Cone tipped her tail towards us, rolling slightly to her left so a bit of her fluke rose out of the water. After drifting with them for about 10 minutes, they humped their backs and all slid under in unison.

Each trip on the boat had its own quality, this one was very quiet and peaceful... no one spoke much, everybody seemed to be soaking in languidness of the three whales.

HELPFUL HINT: If you click on the photograph it will take you to a larger size posted on Flickr. There are often some notes of explaination on the pictures in Flickr.

6/19/87 CONE AND DERECHA AGAIN

1987 6-19 Derecha with Cone again
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

Even though it was pretty choppy, we went out again the next day and came upon Derecha and Cone in just about the same place we had left them; Nurse was not with them this time. Derecha's dorsal is closest, Cone's is tucked in close behind, just barely visible. The two females dove and came up in unison remaining so close their flippers must have brushed. It seemed really companionable.

The blue boat in the background is the deep sea fishing boat that belonged to our boss. He had arrived at Jeffrey's Ledge before us and helped us find these two.

There is a tiny brown bird in the lower right hand side of the picture, it is a wilson's storm petrel. It is a good sign to see lots of these little birds on the water because they seek the same feed as whales. (I suggest you follow the link back to the larger original photograph to see detail more clearly)

Cone's fluke is on the left. Derecha is just about to dive too..... get ready!

Ahhh Derecha for sure! Notice how different their flukes are. Derecha's is very dark and Cone's is very white.

Humpback whales are very blubbery compared to the stream-lined Finback whale and so when they want to make a deep dive they have to bring up their tails to counteract their bouyancy. A Finback would just slide down under the surface and be gone.

1987 6-19 cone
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

Here is Cone's fluke again, very white. Now this is a photo matchers dream shot if I do say so myself. I sent this picture to Allied Whale where someone "took it through" the catalogue (of 6,000 individual fluke shots!), trying to find a match. They found Cone very quickly and were able to tell me who she was and a little about her history. That is how I found out the identity of the whales I have been talking about.

The seas were still pretty rough that day, but rough seas often inspire whales to breach or other noisy active things. As we were arriving one of the two lay on its back and whapped first one then the other flipper hard on the water. Then Cone
"taillob", or slapped her fluke repeatedly on the water. Sometimes seasickness is the price you pay for the most interesting behavior!

1987 6-19 cone 2
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

A LONG SPELL OF NO WHALES! TIME FOR A BRIEF WHALE BIOLOGY LESSON
We had gotten off to such an exciting start seeing these female humpacks for three days in a row that we were ready for a great summer. It rained for a week straight, and when we finally could go out again... not a humpback to be seen!

Somedays we would go out and there was NOTHING... Often I found myself describing what a humpback/finback would look and act like if we only saw one. We certainly were made aware that those extraordinary whale encounters come with either huge amounts of luck or perserverance. Most of the people on the boat were philosophical about it, others expected a Disney experience and got pretty frustrated. During those many days in July and early August when we went out and saw nothing, I talked a lot about whale biology and behavior, any bits of information I could think of to make the trip more interesting... so I'll do it here too just to give an authentic flavor to the story of that summer.

There are two main families of whales, one with teeth (odontocetes) and the other with baleen (mysticetes). They are pretty easy to tell apart.

Odontocetes have teeth for grabbing food and a single blowhole or nostril. The largest is the Sperm whale (50feet) but other members of this family include dolphins, pilot whales, narwhals, belugas, orcas etc. They eat fish, squid even other marine mammals.

Mysticetes have baleen for filtering food and have two blowholes. The largest is the Blue whale (100 feet) others are finbacks, humpbacks, minkes, right whales, gray whales etc. They eat some small schooling fish but mostly huge dense concentrations of tiny krill, sand lance or copepods.

Finally in mid- July we began to see some whales again:

Now and then we saw some Atlantic Whitesided dolphins.... usually in large groups. There were mothers with their tiny calves tucked in close besides them, mid-sized rambunctious ones that may have been the teenagers, and larger adults. Every once in a while small clusters would break off from the feeding groups and ride our bow. It looked like a great diversion for them, and certainly was for us!

86 7-11 AWD05
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

Finbacks started coming into the area on a regular basis. Even though our encounters were usually brief, they were always breath taking. They are 70 feet long, very slender and super fast swimmers (25 knots, certainly faster than our boat). They are called the greyhounds of the sea for good reason, which makes observing them difficult and often frustrating because they could cover such distance under water that they could leave the area without us even knowing.

Allied Whale also holds the catalogue of individual finbacks. Unlike humpback which show distinctive flukes when they dive, finbacks rarely dive and so other distinguishing marks have to be used. Researchers found they could use the shape of their dorsal fins and the patterns behind their blowhole on the right sides.

Finbacks are one of the few asymetrically marked animals. They have a white right jaw and a dark left one. No one is certain why that is. There is some speculation that they turn onto their right side when they are feeding and this gives them the proper countershading to make them less visible to their prey. Like humpbacks, they feed on small schooling fish as well as krill and copepods and have baleen rather than teeth.

Minke Whale
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

Sometimes we would see a Minke whale... the smaller cousin of the Finback. Minkes are 30-35 feet while Finbacks are 70-80 feet, but have the same streamlined bodies and speedy action. One way to tell a minke from a finback is: when a Minke comes to the surface, you can see the blowhole and dorsal fin at the same time. When a finback blows a lot of sleek muscular back slides by before the dorsal shows itself and by that time its blowhole has gone under the water.

We ended up calling them "stinky Minkes" because they were so frustrating to watch. Someone might spot one but by the time we got the boat turned around and we redirected everybodies attention... the were gone! That was OUR problem, they were going about their lives just as they were supposed to.

2004 9: right whale
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

Right whales are extremely endangered so it was a great honor to see one. We were extremely careful not to approach, or disturb them. Twice that July we came upon a mother and her calf. We were impressed by how differently they moved ... she and her calf seemed so ponderous compared to the speedy finbacks and even the slower humpbacks. Right Whales are the slowest and most bouyant of baleen whales and they feed exclusively on tiny krill and copepods while humpbacks might eat some small fish.

FIRST SIGHTING OF FISSURE 8/26/87

87 8-26 Fissure10 web
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

After a long July with no Humpbacks, they finally began filtering into the Jeffrey's Ledge area by mid August. Just a few at first but more and more each day until by the end of August we would see several at a time. Many of them were mothers with their calves. The little tiny blip to the left of the larger dorsal in this picture is a calf .

On August 26th we were overwelmed by variety whales to watch. Three or four Minke's and at least three finbacks were zooming around, popping up unpredictably. Dolphins rode our bow and six humpbacks were within sight! Two of them were mother and calf pairs.

Suddenly we picked out our old friend Fissure from the previous year, tagging along with Sargent and her calf. (The picture above is of Sargent and her tiny calf). The three stayed very close together.

87 8-26 Fissurecalf11 web
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

Fissure didn't seem the slightest bit interested in us, but seemed to focus his attention on the little calf: he is lying on his left side, the right side of his fluke sticking up in the air. He is close enough to the little calf that his nose is possibly touching its fluke. The calf's tiny dorsal is poking out of the water.
If you look really carefully (perhaps click on the link back to flickr), you can see the light green water caused by the white of his flipper and a big flat "foot print" from the upsweep of the mother's tail. I think she is just in front of her calf, but it is hard to tell.
That is one of the frustrations and fascinations of studying a marine animal... the majority of the important behaviors happen under water out of sight!

87 8-26 Fissure14 web
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

The mother and calf "fluked up" making a deep dive and we figured they would be down for a while. It seemed like a good time to leave them for we were even more sensitive about disturbing mothers and calves than adults.
Fissure followed close behind so, assuming the long encounter was over, we started to back away and head for home.

87 8-26 Fissure29 web
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

Suddenly the captain let out a yelp and took the boat out of gear. Fissure came up right next to us with a loud whoooosh of exhaled air. He was so close I couldn't get the camera to focus. It didn't help that I was shaking in surprise!

87 8-26 Fissure30 web
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

Now we seemed more interesting than the mother and calf. We could see them off in the distance, coming up and blowing once in a while. But Fissure stayed close to us. He dove and circled the boat just a few feet below the surface so we could see his whole body. His tail rose and fell leisurely, leaving "footprints" at the surface. His long white flippers glowing green through the water, worked as stabilizers, like wings of a gliding gull delicately changing pitch to maintain his course. When he reached the stern of the boat, he used one flipper like an oar to help him turn to continue his circle of the boat.

87 8-26 Fissure33 web
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

It was a very mellow encounter, not nearly as rambunctious as the previous summer. He seemed content to swim around us or lay close to the surface with his nose (rostrum) almost touch the boat. Finally it was time to go, and on the way home we looked through the log from 1986... sure enough, our first 1986 encounter with Fissure had also been at the end of August.

1987 9/12 Fissure Second sighting

2005-02-20T09:43:00.000-08:00

Jeffrey's ledge
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

Kids had gone back to school, the boat was much less crowded and we had to travel a bit further south down Jeffrey's ledge to find whales. Most likely the humpbacks were getting ready to migrate. They needed to add as much body fat as they could to make the long journey to the Caribbean. There they would have their calves, or mate and then make the same trip back to the northern Atlantic without feeding again until they returned!

THE MAP:
Measurements are in fathoms (1 fathom= 6 feet) So:
- The * on green is Kennebunkport where our boat was anchored.
- Light blue is as much as 20' deep.
- medium blue as much as 180' deep
- dark blue is as much as 600' deep
If you click on the map it will take you to a larger version that has notes. Run your mouse over the surface of the map and more notes will show up.

86 9-1 sparrow on boat
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

It felt like fall was settling in for humans and whales alike. Even migrating birds hooked a ride with us as they started their long journey south. We made a good reststop, complete with hamburger buns and crackers, either dropped or shared with our visitors.

September 12th was what we call a "lumpy" day. The wind had blown pretty hard the two days previous and there were 3-4 foot swells. People did not enjoy the 2 hour ride out to Jeffrey's Ledge.Once we got there it was hard work staying with whales even though we knew there were several around: they rarely fluked, the white mist (usually was very visible when they exhaled, the "blow" of "thar she blows") was getting knocked down by the wind. We were just about to give up and go home when.... up popped Fissure in his usual manner, right beside the boat. Our friendly competitor joined us and Fissure settled in to his antics between the two boats.

87 9-12 Fissure 500
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

87 9-12 Fissure02 500 copy
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

The two boats were quite close together and Fissure came up in the middle, spinning around first one way then the other. I worried that he was sandwiched too closely between boats. But reading through my notes it is clear he had no problems navigating that small space.

And I needn't worry that all the attention would overwhelm him... he spent several minutes spyhopping and spinning to face us then to face the other boat. He was obviously loving it!

87 9-12 Fissure01 500
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

He went through a whole range of behaviors each one more outrageous than the one before. He did a somersault just below the surface, and wagged his tail back and forth (that's what I say in my notes wish I had pictures or could remember it)!

But I do remember he "stood" on his head, flukes above the water, using his 15 foot flippers to spin slowly around. They glowed green in the depths and were like wings as they made the leisurely gesture that spun him. I was too flabbergasted to take pictures of that, but can still "see" it.

Each time he would come up and look at us intently for a minute before he dove again . It seemed like he was both absorbing our excitement and planning what to do next.

It reminded me of the time he had blown the bubble clouds for us the previous summer.

87 9-12 Fissure37 500
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

As we backed off and headed for home, Fissure was still interacting with the other boat. Since it was such a cold lumpy day, neither boat had many passengers, and possibly some of theirs were inside feeling under the weather.

But Fissure appeared so curious and eager while his audience appeared so restrained almost intimidated. It felt sad leaving him. Of all the whales I met he touched my heart... and still does.

Fissure WN copy
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

This is Fissure's official picture in the catalogue taken in 1987. He even has the same periwinkles (or whatever they are) crawling down the trailing edge of his fluke.

Fissures fluke
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

And this was my last photograph of Fissure.

A wonderful woman who went on every whale watch boat she could when she wasn't working, wrote that he was seen several times after this sighting. This is what she described:

"Barney (our nickname for Fissure) has been hanging around off Cape Ann for the last 3 weeks, making lots of new fans for himself. He paid Mason (naturalist out of Gloucester?) a visit when they were out on an 18'outboard on Oct.20. Seems he wrapped himself around their boat, stood on his head the works! What a ham. Now perhaps they'll believe the stories I have been telling them about that whale. I saw him Saturday, Oct. 24 but he was very interested in his new sibling and did not come over to the boat (Fissure's mother, Veil had been seen with her new calf that year). Saw him again on Nov. 1 and he was for a time with another whale named Wrap, but left to pay us a visit. Did his routine for us! Very cold that day but it sure was worth it."

Most of the whales were down in the southern end of the Gulf of Maine by then. Many were gobbling up their last meal before they headed south to the Caribbean and the calving and mating grounds. It is not certain that a teenager like Fissure would actually go south since he wasn't ready to mate.

As far as I know, he has not been seen since but one can always hope... it is a big ocean. If there are any whale folks reading this and you have seen Fissure since please let me know. He has a very special place in my heart. He would be twenty years old now... a somber patriarch!

TALON #0305 Female born 1981

2005-02-18T11:55:00.000-08:00

Talon... #0305 in the Humpback whale catalogue. She was first sighted with her mother in 1981 so we knew that she was 6 when we first encountered her in 1986. Her mother, Sinestra #0102, was first seen in 1976, and was one of the first group to be identified.

When she was a calf, Talon was a favorite of a many whale watch boats. She was known to come close to the boats and interact... breaching, flipper slapping, spy hopping. Sinestra must have been pretty comfortable too, since she did not try to draw Talon away. Some boat captains and naturalists have a theory that certain mothers even recognize their boat, most likely by the sound of their engines, and intentional bring their calves over. The mother then goes off to feed and the calf is entertained by the exuberant passengers! The mother can find her calf again by honing in on the engine sound. Who knows.... it is a wonderful thought that maybe whale watching serves some purpose for the whales too?

I was told by people who saw Talon as a calf that she was small (around 12') and the story had it that Sinestra was often seen breaching and landing on her belly when she was pregnant with Talon; quite likely Talon's size was not enhanced by being a shock absorber as an embryo? But by the time we saw her, she looked normal, so she caught up with the others through her childhood. I was also told that she was known for her sociability with other whales, often seen with well known individuals and for some quirky behavior. In 1984 she formed an attachment to a large buoy and was found there day after day by the whale watch boats.

Talon's flukes were a pretty generic black, making it difficult to distinguish her from the hundreds of other humpbacks with plain black flukes, but she had a very very useful secondary marking:

It was totally unique, the source of her name (reminding the naming party of a talon zipper) and a part of her body that was almost always visible when she was at the surface. Usually you would have to wait for a humpback to do a deep dive before you could see their flippers and identify them. The easy visibility of this mark had further implications... when humpbacks migrate to banks north of the Dominican Republic, the banks are so shallow that they rarely bring up their flukes and so often they can't be identified. Because the mark on her dorsal was visible whenever she surfaced, Talon's presence on the banks was recorded often: in January of 1982 (probably returning with her mother), in March of 1984, and in January of 1985 in a "rowdy group". Rowdy groups are males that cluster around a female and jockey for mating position. I wonder if Talon was just flirting, perhaps "practicing" the mating ritual, since female humpbacks don't reach sexual maturity until their around their sixth year.

1986 First Meeting with Talon 7/9/86

2005-02-17T12:02:00.000-08:00

1986 7-9 Talon16
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

The day before had been a bust. It had been choppy and windy, the chop making it hard to see the whales bodies at the surface and the wind dispersing the "blows" that helped us find them. We had only been able to find one big finback and a minke but both species are very fast and neither of these whales were interested in spending time with us. We were pretty discouraged when we went out the next day could only find minkes and finbacks again.

But the wind was still and the seas calm so we were suddenly able to see two humpback blows way off to the east. We started working our way towards them and found when we got to them, we were east of Jeffrey's ledge in deep water (600 feet, as opposed to 70-100 feet on the ledge). Most of the time whales would be on top of the ledge or "inside" in the deep water on the west side of the ledge.

A ledge plays an important role in enriching the whole food chain because the nutrients on the bottom, dragged along by tides and currents, hit the ledge and are brought up to the surface where phytoplankton can use them. Phytoplankton need sunlight so the nutrients are only useful if they are near enough to the surface for sunlight to penetrate. When this happens the zooplankton eats the phytoplankton, the copepods eat the zooplankton, the baleen whales and fish eat the copepods and on up it goes... like the song about "the hip bones connected to the etc." It is truly a great web.

For the 15 minutes it took us to get to them, we could see the two humpbacks were diving and surfacing in synch. They stayed underwater for 7-10 minutes then lay at the surface together, breathing for 4 or 5 minutes (a pretty typical feeding pattern). One never really fluked so we couldn't identify it with certainty and the other .... well there was that white zipper pattern on her dorsal barely visible in the glare ... Talon! It was the first time I had seen her so I did not know until I got home that this was a well known favorite amongst whale watch boats.

1986 7-9 Talon 22
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

As soon as we got close, the one with the white mark on its dorsal came right over to us and rolled onto its back leisurely flapping its flippers in the air and letting it fall with a splap!

Not yet knowing anything about Talon, I described her in my notes as large, comfortable with the boat and having some weird white marks on her dorsal. Her companion was smaller, perhaps a teenager, with a rounded stumpy dorsal and was less willing to come close to the boat.

Talon immediately started using us for entertainment... I don't know how else to describe it. Like Fissure, Talon seemed eager to engage us, staying very close to us for over an hour (when WE finally had to leave). The second whale was equally interested but would usually keep its distance, and kept Talon between us.

1986 7-9 Talon26
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

For the first 5 minutes or so, Talon lay underwater, perpendicular to the boat, "resting" quietly her blowhole visible just below the surface on the starboard side and her dorsal and flukes stretched out on the port side! The boat is probably 20' across. Her tail began to sway back and forth and we could see her flesh jiggle when we ran across to look at her big face..... was she using the boat to scratch her back? Would she lift us out of the water??? Nah ... actually we even feel any motion in the boat.... she was big but we were bigger and a lot heavier.

At one point she rolled slightly sideways looking straight up at us through the water. We could clearly see her eye and the protruberance bulge of flesh that protects it. To be looked in the eye by a whale with curiosity, humor even... well it makes you realize how overused the word awesome is.

1986 7-9 talon27
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

After a while she dove and we could see her white flippers glowing a beautiful green beneath the surface of the nutrient rich water. Everybody hung over the side then followed her as she led us to the stern of the boat. The stern was closer to the water with lower rails and people had a more intimate view of her as she slowly rose to the surface. Her blow was so close that we were sprayed with the mist.

She waggled her head back and forth above the water, spy hopping, turning this way and that perhaps to get a better view of us or give us a better one of her. She was SO close to the outstretched hands but remained JUST out of reach. I am constantly amazed at how self aware whales appear to be. Again and again I have seen how well maneuver their 45 foot body and 15 foot flippers, brushing gently past one another even stroking with flipper or tail, and in this case keeping us at just the right distance!

We set up a buddy system and took turns at the rail with a person behind hanging onto their belts so they wouldn't topple in.

1986 7-9 Talon29
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

In this photo, Talon faced, us her blowhole is closed (as they are when relaxed, the nostrils must be pulled open). When she "blew" we were spread with warm mist and the smell of whale, fishy but not unpleasant!

Meanwhile the shy whale spent most of its time below the surface and behind Talon. At one point it seemed to gain some courage and we could see it dive under
Talon and move in close to us "standing" upright about ten feet beneath the surface, it seemed to be looking up at us through the water. Then it swung itself to a horizontal position, and turned sweeping back under Talon. It did all this maneuvering in tight quarters without so much as brushing Talon. When it came to the surface to blow, Talon was between us again.

1986 7-9 Talon30
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

Talon spent the next half hour or so gliding from one position to another... spyhopping, rolling on her side and lifting one huge 15 foot flipper, holding it suspended then letting it fall with a thud like a big tree crashing to the ground. At one point she lay on her back and curled her fluke upwards bringing it down again and again with an exuberant splash. Luckily we were not on the receiving end!

It was all so flabbergasting and intimate that I finally just put down my camera and watched, recording as much as I could remember in my journal on the way home... sometimes a camera gets in my way... distancing me from the experience. But I did manage to get this picture of Talon sliding by almost close enough to touch, every texture, scar and depression so clear I can almost feel it. It was very hard to leave.

1986 Second Meeting with Talon 9/29/86

2005-02-16T12:28:00.000-08:00

By the end of September we were seeing a general movement to the south. Each day we would have to travel further down Jeffrey's ledge to find whales. On September 29th we had to go all the way down to Scantum's ledge (if you click on the map it will take you to a larger version with labels in flickr).

It was overcast that day. The air temperature was 61º and the sea temperature was down to 55º but there was no wind so it wasn't really cold. I came to treasure days with no winds and calm seas even more than sunny days since visibility would be ideal without the glare off the water.

As we traveled southeast across Jeffrey's basin, we encountered a lonely harbor porpoise then a blue shark, creatures that would be obscured if there was any chop. Finally, way south of where we usually went, we came upon two humpbacks who I say in my notes were just "breezing though", showing very little interest in interacting with our boat. One of them turned out to be our "friend" FISSURE!

But he and his mystery companion were much more interested in each other than in us. In my notes I say they were "cruising" in synch rather than feeding. They would dive together remaining down for about 7 minutes and then come up to breathe for about 2 minutes, heading steadily westward. If they had been feeding we figured their movements would be more erratic and dives deeper (bringing up their flukes). You can see from this photograph why his companion remained a mystery...

For every good fluke shot I took, at least 50 would come out like this... too far away and too blurry to match in the Humpback Catalogue. "Fluke matchers" try hard to find enough in these photos to indentify a whale but it is like squeezing water from a stone and we groan when these photographs come in. I've experienced it from both ends now... as a naturalist sending in these kinds of photos and as a volunteer fluke matcher struggling with them... it must be my karma!

86 9-29 Talon0305
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

Talon and her companion came over briefly to check us. We were able to determine that this one was Talon because we saw her white dorsal mark just before she dove, but we couldn't find enough distinguishing features to identify her black tailed companion. The difference between the two back tails was very subtle. All I could see was a heavier concentrations of barnacles on Talon's left fluke tip. This distinction couldn't be counted on over time because barnacles build up and drop off in ever changing patterns. But it was just enough in combination with her white dorsal mark to help us separate these two black tails for this one encounter. Talon's character shown through as well: she showed a bit more interest in the boat, coming closer and hanging out a bit longer. The other hung back, waiting for her to rejoin it. In this picture Talon dives right in front of the boat, just beneath the bowsprit.

But Talon was obviously more interested in the other whale than she was in us and went back to flipper slapping, close and parallel to it. In this picture the mystery whale is lying on its side, its right flipper thwacking the water with a sharp report. You can see Talon's dorsal just beyond (click on the picture and you can see a larger version of this in flickr). Talon had just rejoined the mystery whale and drifted slowly alongside while it slapped.

Slowly Talon rolled onto her left side, and started to raise her right flipper in the air. I was having a hard time making sense of all these whale parts sticking out of the water, but I think both whales had their backs facing our direction so the near whale's belly was facing Talon's back. I have tried to label them in the big photos at flickr (click on this picture)

During our first meeting with Talon I got a close up photo of her flipper and it was white, so I am pretty certain this is hers raising up to thwack the water. They spent a lot of time hitting the water with their flipper: they would slowly raise all 15 feet of heavy muscle bone and flesh, suspend it for a moment wobbling high in the air then let it drop heavily with a smack and huge splash. Once the flipper of the mystery whale hit Talon's side, it made a dull thud and we could see her flesh jiggle. She didn't seem to mind, she didn't startle or move away, just continued to lay there slapping her flipper against the water.

They continued this behavior for 10 or 15 minutes, great, slow gestures over and over, rolling over on their bellies once in a while to breathe then rolling back to whap the water again.

86 9-29 Talon12
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

We seemed to get Talon's attention when we started our engines to head for home. She dove, leaving her companion and came steaming over to us. Could it be she was tired of being whacked on the side by that big flipper? Or was she just distracted by the sound of the engine? I often wondered what our boat sounded like to the whales, and if they could distinguish it from other boats.

I had noticed these same scars on her back when we met her in June and wondered what could have caused them. There are very few sharp edges on a baleen whale; no teeth or claws. Most of the injury they might cause each other was with a powerful slamming tail or flipper, which would bruise not scratch. But there is a knob on the leading edge of the lower jaw of humpbacks and sometimes barnacles attach themselves to the protrusion. Perhaps another whale scraped her with this scratchy lump.

She did not make an effort to interact with us, just slid by quite close to us, giving us a good view of her identifying mark.

As we moved off she raised her tail high in a deep dive. When I looked back, back I saw that she had rejoined her companion.

Soon she would be making the long trip to the Banks north of the Dominican Republic where Humpback whales go to mate and calve. They start arriving there in late December and it takes a month or two to complete the trip from the Gulf of Maine to the Caribbean, meaning they must leave the northern waters sometime in early November. They need to build up their fat stores as much as they can during September and October, because they do very little feeding on their way down, while they are there or on their way back. Talon certainly looked energetic and healthy, perhaps she could afford leisure time to socialize. We went out for a couple more weeks, but didn't come upon her again that year.

We saw her again the next June with her first calf and so realized that during these two 1986 sighting she had been pregnant!

1987 First Meeting with Talon 6/20/87

2005-02-15T16:45:00.000-08:00

Early summer weather in the Gulf of Maine can be very unpredictable. By June 20th we had only managed to get out 5 times, even though the boat started operating in late May. On three of those days (June 16th , 18th and 19th), we saw three well known females feeding and traveling together in different configurations. They were interested in each other and so didn't interact with us. That was fine with me, I love to hang back and watch interactions amongst the whales themselves, but many passengers were restless, wanting a "close encounter" of the Disney kind.

Well on the 20th of June a "close encounter" was exactly what we had! The day got off to a slow start... for the first hour and a half we watched a mature whale busily feeding. We stayed with it through 5 diving cycles: it would be down for 7 or 8 minutes, come up for 2 minutes and blow 6 to 9 times before diving again. The captain could see clumps of feed on the "feed finder" at about 310 feet below the surface.

After a while we were distracted by a finback who blew once and disappeared (they swim so fast, they can cover great distances under water) but it drew us further south and there we saw a whale breach twice!

In between breaches, it would come to the surface and blow, then roll over on its back and "tail wag", flailing its fluke vigorously back and forth.

It looked "tiny" if you can call a 15' animal that. We were guessing it was a calf, but where was its mother?! We worried after seeing it alone for over ten minutes. To make matters worse, a fishing boat came steaming right across the little whale's path and we were frantic until we saw it pop up again in boats wake and wheeze blow (a loud wheezing exhalation which is thought express alarm or annoyance). The whale went back to waving its flukes in the air as if nothing had happened and the people on the boat cheered in relief.

We watched the activities of this little whale for a least 15 minutes and still there was no sign of a second animal. We were pretty convinced by its size and wobbly movements that is was a calf and it was worrisome that it was on its own so early in its first year. Calves are born in January or February and leave the warm Caribbean water to migrate north with their mothers in March and April. Some go to the eastern North Atlantic but most will arrive in the western North Atlantic by May or June. This calf was, at most, 6 months old... just a "toddler" with lots to learn still before it was weaned (some stay with their moms for a year, sometimes two years)!

1987 6-20 Talon
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

Suddenly a large whale popped up and blew right beside the boat, welcomed by shrieks from the startled passengers. "I'm here!" A man with polarized sunglasses said later he had noticed a dark shape underneath the calf through most of the those 15 minutes when we thought it was alone. It seemed the mother was giving her youngster plenty of opportunity to explore and learn, with as little interruption as possible but she was standing by to make sure it was safe. As a former nursery school teacher I had great respect for what I interpreted as her parenting technique: "learning by doing".

As she slid alongside the boat she showed us her distinctive dorsal... it was Talon!! It was very exciting to see her with her first calf, for many reasons. First, Talon's lineage and life history were well known since she had been seen as a calf in 1981 with her mother Sinestra. This helped confirm that Humpback females are mature at around 7 years old. We also knew that Sinestra was a grandmother to this little one. On a more personal level many whale watch boats had been befriended by Talon when she was a calf and were very curious to see how her behavior would change with the responsibilities of motherhood.

We wondered if Talon would allow her calf to interact with whale watch boats. She had been quite a "cut up" as a "kid" and her mother Sinestra had been pretty tolerant. It was interesting to see that she, in turn, seemed to tolerate the antics of her calf.

The calf found us fascinating, and in close company with its mother, circled us many times. The encounter lasted two hours. There was so much going on that I just put down my camera and watched. I did manage to get some sketchy notes:

"1434 (2:34 p.m.) both whales come up close together near our bow. The calf "wags" its fluke, slashing back and forth just below the surface of the water. Then they do a deep dive side by side. Talon "flukes up" but the calf didn't fluke enough to get a good picture. Is it still too young, buoyant or weak to dive deeply?
1438 the calf pops up again and blows, then lies just below the surface of the water for 7 minutes. Everybody is totally silent and fascinated as they watch.
1445 the calf comes up to blow and sinks back down again.
1450 both Talon and the calf are up briefly, blow a couple of times and dive again this time both bring up their flukes. (I just watched, my camera on the other side of the boat, rats).
1450-1458 the two are down for eight minutes then come up very close to the port side of the boat.
1500-1550 The calf stays just below the surface where we can easily see it then comes up and circles us. It tailwags repeatedly and each time the passengers cheer. Then it lies perpendicular to us, almost touching the boat with its nose (rostrum). It drifts slowly around the boat rolling on its side showing a fluke, thus giving us a "mug shot" that can be used in the Humpback whale catalog to identify it in the future. We clearly see its eye as it looks up at us. (It is always breathtaking and moving to be caught in a whale's gaze.)

All the while, Talon's dark shape, like a huge shadow drifts along just beneath the calf. The two dive under the boat and come up on the other side three times, causing us to stampede across following them. People become self conscious, laughing at themselves and wondering both what we sound like to the two whales under the water, and if they are diving back and forth to repeat the effect." (end of my notes)

Finally they seemed they get bored, dove deeply off our stern and headed away. The captain never followed a whale when it choose to leave us.... he valued their privacy very highly and did everything possible to protect it. This is one sign of a good captain, another is that he or she will not approach whales any closer than the prescribed distance, rather, they will stop outside that distance and wait for the whales to approach them.

1987 Second Meeting with Talon 8/10/87

2005-02-14T16:58:00.000-08:00

The twenty miles from Kennebunkport out to Jeffrey's ledge was always a long trip, especially on a day like this when there was a big ocean swell leftover from a storm the previous day. People were full of anticipation and that helped to distract them from any queasiness they might feel but other distractions were always welcome. It was unusual to find baleen whales when we traveled across the "basin" because they needed large clumps of krill, copepods, sandlaunce, herring... the tiny critters that were most usually found on the ledge itself. But it was the height of summer and the ocean was in "full bloom". We had been seeing patches sandlance near the surface and on the feed finding sonar all the way across the basin so it wasn't that surprising to encounter a Minke whale a couple of miles west of "the fingers" (click on the map for a larger labeled version).

Just as soon as we came on "the fingers", things got very busy and people started feeling fine, all sea-sickness forgotten! Right away we saw blows. They were the short bushy blows of a humpback, as opposed to the finback blow which are tall and straight like smoke coming out of a chimney. When we got closer we saw this strange sight... some people were convinced it was a huge shark swimming at the surface of the water!

But we soon saw Talon and figured out it was her calf, lying on its side with one fluke sticking out and its flipper waving in the air. We hadn't seen her since the wonderful encounter on June 20th. Once again the calf was the interactive one while Talon hovered in the background.... quite some change from her calfhood when she was the clowning center of attention. She seemed to be taking her mothering role very seriously.

87 8-10 Taloncalf01
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

The calf was at the surface a lot, rolling around alone at first, then traveling with her mom slowly but methodically towards the north. When the other whale watch boat came up to join us, Talon and the calf just dove underneath, without "breaking their stride" and kept right on going.

We moved off to insure they weren't overwhelmed, heading north ourselves since we saw the blows of a finback and more humpbacks in that direction.

We left Talon and her calf behind as we moved north towards the other humpbacks, but watching off our stern, I could see that they were coming along slowly behind us. When we arrived we found a fascinating congregation of four whales. First there was Tusk and Beltane who were close together breathing and diving in synch. Both whales were young adults (the same generation as Talon). Tusk was male and had been see as a calf with his mother Equus in 1979 making him an eight year old that year. He seemed to think of himself anyway as a fully mature male, even though eight seemed young to take on the older males.

Beltane was a female who had been born in 1980. She had had a calf in 1985 (young for a whale). Twice, Tusk broke away from Beltane and dove under our boat from bow to stern. It was hard to determines what he was doing but it seemed like he was asserting territory at the very least.... we stood back at a respectable distance.

[Beltane's fluke shot coming soon]

It is not clear why Tusk and Beltane were together. North Atlantic Humpbacks are thought to mate in the Caribbean, that is where males sing their beautiful songs. Were these two engaged in some sort of slow motion foreplay?

Another very interesting association came to light when I got home, sorted out all the fluke shots and called Allied Whale to get background information about the whales we saw that day. A very distinctive whale (it was missing a good part of its left fluke), hanging out nearby in the company of a forth whale (who never fluked) turned out to be Silver, Beltane's mother!

These pictures were taken of Silver on 10/1/87 the last trip of the season when she was most likely headed south for the winter. She was obviously full of vigor, even seemed to be enjoying the turmoltuous seas.... a whole lot more than some people on the boat.

And here she is slipping under the surface of the water where it was much calmer.

Forty five minutes later Talon and her calf finally arrived and joined the gang. The calf immediately settled into to rolling and flipperslapping. Our boat could go 10 knots easily (18 with some serious strain) while a humpback can't move much more than 4 knots. With her calf in tow, I am sure Talon could only poke along. So it wasn't surprising it had taken them so long to get to us.

All the while we had been watching Beltane, Tusk and Silver, another whale breached repeatedly not far off. We wondered if that had drawn Talon to this group.

This had been a very busy trip. There was lots to watch but no close encounters since the whales were busy with their own social interactions. When Talon dove and we were sure of the locations of her calf, we left the with lots to process on the way home.

It was the last time I was to see her.

Talon's story did not have a happy ending. During the winter of 1987-1988 one humpback after another washed ashore, many of them on Cape Cod. By January 14 were found: Talon was one of them and Beltane another. It was a heartbreaking two months for me and a nightmare for researchers who had know these whales since they were born.

Talon's calf was seen the next summer in the Gulf of Maine so at least he survived for through the winter and following spring without her.

It was not certain what had caused so many deaths during the fall and winter. Some whales were fresh enough to autopsy and herring with high concentrations of red tide in their livers were found in the whales' stomachs.

Talon may have fed on those herring too in effort to regain her body fat from a summer of nursing a hungry calf. She would need it for the long migration to the Caribbean and lean winter there without feeding.

This photograph is not of Talon but of a female that died only 2 years ago. Many whales were found floating at sea and a few came ashore. Their bodies were so decayed that the cause of death could not be determined, but red tide was a primary suspect.

Red tide is naturally occurring but it particulars thrives on pollution we release into the ocean from our rivers. As well as feeling enormous sadness for the loss of these whales (some of them "friends"), I also feel responsible to them. I hope by telling their story, I can encourage people to get involved in protecting and restoring our oceans.

Map of Jeffrey's Ledge

2005-01-04T14:18:00.000-08:00

Jeffrey's ledge
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

After the usual safety dock talk, the whale watch boat would leave at 10:00 from the dock located a 1/2 mile or so up the Kennebunk River. I was always full of anticipation when we reached the mouth of the river... we would monitor the weather radio intently in the morning but the proof was definitely in the pudding. At the mouth, the ocean spread out before us and we could see if we had chop or swells or silky calm in store.

It took two hours to get from the dock to Jeffrey's ledge and some people suffered going out. I would try to get the green looking folk situated on the benches at midships, out doors, and teach them to find a point on the horizon to watch. That seems to help.

As we traveled out, the captain would be on the "horn" talking to fishermen who had been there for hours already. Many of them were very cooperative and would let us know if they had seen anything. There were places that were known to be great fishing areas: the North end, the fingers and often we would head straight for one or the other. As the summer turned to fall we would have to travel further south down the ledge to stay with whales that were getting ready to take off for their migration to the Caribbean

THE MAP:
Measurements are in fathoms (1 fathom= 6 feet) So:
- The * on green is Kennebunkport where our boat was anchored.
- Light blue is as much as 20' deep.
- medium blue as much as 180' deep
- dark blue is as much as 600' deep
If you click on the map it will take you to a larger version that has notes. Run your mouse over the surface of the map and more notes will show up.

Brief glimpse of Whale Biology

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There are two main families of whales, one with teeth (odontocetes) and the other with baleen (mysticetes). They are pretty easy to tell apart.

Odontocetes have teeth for grabbing food and a single blowhole or nostril. The largest is the Sperm whale (50feet) but other members of this family include dolphins, pilot whales, narwhals, belugas, orcas etc. They eat fish, squid even other marine mammals.

Mysticetes have baleen for filtering food and have two blowholes. The largest is the Blue whale (100 feet) others are finbacks, humpbacks, minkes, right whales, gray whales etc. They eat some small schooling fish but mostly huge dense concentrations of tiny krill, sand lance or copepods.

A LONG SPELL OF NO WHALES! TIME FOR A BRIEF WHALE BIOLOGY LESSON
We had gotten off to such an exciting start seeing these female humpacks for three days in a row that we were ready for a great summer. It rained for a week straight, and when we finally could go out again... not a humpback to be seen!

Somedays we would go out and there was NOTHING... Often I found myself describing what a humpback/finback would look and act like if we only saw one. We certainly were made aware that those extraordinary whale encounters come with either huge amounts of luck or perserverance. Most of the people on the boat were philosophical about it, others expected a Disney experience and got pretty frustrated. During those many days in July and early August when we went out and saw nothing, I talked a lot about whale biology and behavior, any bits of information I could think of to make the trip more interesting... so I'll do it here too just to give an authentic flavor to the story of that summer.

There are two main families of whales, one with teeth (odontocetes) and the other with baleen (mysticetes). They are pretty easy to tell apart.

Odontocetes have teeth for grabbing food and a single blowhole or nostril. The largest is the Sperm whale (50feet) but other members of this family include dolphins, pilot whales, narwhals, belugas, orcas etc. They eat fish, squid even other marine mammals.

Mysticetes have baleen for filtering food and have two blowholes. The largest is the Blue whale (100 feet) others are finbacks, humpbacks, minkes, right whales, gray whales etc. They eat some small schooling fish but mostly huge dense concentrations of tiny krill, sand lance or copepods.

Finally in mid- July we began to see some whales again:

Now and then we saw some Atlantic Whitesided dolphins.... usually in large groups. There were mothers with their tiny calves tucked in close besides them, mid-sized sized rambunctious ones that may have been the teenagers, and larger adults. Every once in a while small clusters would break off from the feeding groups and ride our bow. It looked like a great diversion for them, and certainly was for us!

86 7-11 AWD05
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

Finbacks started coming into the area on a regular basis. They were amazing to encounter. They are 70 feet long, very slender and super fast swimmers (25 knots, certainly faster than our boat). They are called the greyhounds of the sea for good reason, which makes observing them difficult and often frustrating because the could leave the area without us even knowing.

Allied Whale also has a catalogue of individual finbacks using their dorsal fins and the patterns behind their blowhole on the right sides to distinguish one from another.

Finbacks are one of the few asymetrically marked animals. They have a white right jaw and a dark left one. No one is certain why that is. There is some speculation that they turn onto their right side when they are feeding and this gives them the proper countershading to make them less visible to their prey. Like humpbacks, they feed on small schooling fish as well as krill and copepods and have baleen rather than teeth.

Minke Whale
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

Or we would see a Minke whale... the smaller cousin of the Finback. Minkes are 30-35 feet while Finbacks are 70-80 feet. One way to tell a minke from a finback: when a Minke comes to the surface, you can see the blowhole and dorsal fin at the same time. When a finback blows a lot of sleek muscular back slides by before the dorsal shows itself.

We ended up calling them "stinky Minkes" because they were so frustrating to watch. Someone might spot one but by the time we got the boat turned around and we directed everybodies attention... the were gone! That was OUR problem, they were going about their lives just as they were supposed to.

2004 9: right whale
Originally uploaded by yeimaya.

This is a recent picture but in July of 1987, we saw a right whale mother and her calf two times, once at the beginning of July and once in the middle of July.

Right whales are extremely endangered so this was a great honor and we were extremely careful not to approach, or disturb her. We were impressed by how differently she moved ... she and her calf seemed so ponderous compared to the speedy finbacks but also to the slower humpbacks. Right Whales are the slowest and most bouyant of baleen whales and they feed exclusively on tiny krill and copepods while humpbacks might eat some small fish.

Copyright Information

2005-01-02T13:31:00.000-08:00

This weblog is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
This license was chosen so that people would use the information to teach others about whales and to learn more about them. If you find the information useful please let me know.

Gale

About The Author

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I am a sea person, a country person, a walk in the woods, stare at the stars person.... my soul dries up on pavement, my heart hurts when trees are cut, animals lose their places to live.

I have raised two fine kids, many cats; I am enriched by the art of my husband and the warmth of friends and family.

After years of slogging my way through school, I learned I could play with the thoughts that intrigued me and so got a masters in early childhood education and then environmental education... and found great joy in teaching first nursery school kids, then angry teenagers watching them became engaged as they slogged through marshes and tide pools .... we found a seal haul out and the rest was history.

Seals and whales have been my focus ever since. The whale blog tells the story of whales I met during my two summers as naturalist on a whale watch boat. My seal blog is still percolating as I try to pull together the much more complex story of 24 years of observations.

Individuality in kids, in whales, in seals, in cats in trees all grab my attention. I have known 50 or more seals and 10 or more whales over the years; each individual has a unique temperament and that uniqueness is what I want to talk about.

The seal study is ongoing.... the seals leave the ledge I observe in the winter but they will be back in April and I will be there too until they leave again in late August. The winter is time to write about them.

If you have questions or comments or would like more information you can contact me at baleenoptera@yahoo.com.