We began the trip with overcast skys and thick fog in the bay and out to our Puffin nesting island. Upon arriving at Petit Manan the fog cleared just enough that we could see the shore and lighthouse. Heading out to our whale feeding grounds the fog began to lift and we started to see lots of shearwater, storm petrels, 100's of porpoise and dozens of seals. We also saw a Northern Fulmar and atleast 10 pairs of adult father razorbill with chicks. All of a sudden there were whales in all directions and we hadn't even arrived at our normal whale watching area! We had amazing looks at a group of five Finback whales charging through the ocean, one of which our research assistant Lauren identified as #3017. We then found two humpback whales which we recognized as Tusk and Partition, a male and female. Tusk has a dark figure in it's tail that looks like an animal head with a tusk and is a great friend of ours having been sighted since it was a calf of Eqqus in 1979. During this encounter Kaitlyn Allen, conducting acoustic research for her Phd recorded megap-clicks (glass 2006) which are thought to be the sounds humpbacks make when feeding. Not surprisingly our fish finding recorded a significant shoal of life below the boat that were probably serving as prey for the 8 to 10 Finbacks and 2 humpbacks we saw. A fabulous trip!
1:00PM: On our second tour of the day we returned to the area we found whales in the morning and discoverd five Finbacks. There were two pairs and a single whale moving with energy and acting as if they were feeding down deeper in the water column. We then caught up with our two humpback whales Partition and Tusk who were resting on the surface. Eventually they woke up and started swimming and showed us the beautiful patterns on the underside of their tails. Then Tusk did something that I have never seen a humpback whale do before. Tusk lifted his tail in the air and proceeded to wag it back and forth violently? This was a side to side motion and not up and down motion. The consensus among the crew was that this new behavior should be called Tail-wagging. It would be interesting to know from colleagues whether this is a behavior that they have seen in other parts of the Gulf of Maine as well. Overall - a great trip!
4:30PM: During our third trip it started to rain but that didn't dampen our spirits. We got great looks at 2 Humpbacks and 1 Finback whale. The star of this tour was a teenage humpback whale named Canine that lifted it's flukes out of the ocean repeatedly. This whale has a type four tail with many white streaks and marking agianst the black background. Canine was a calf of our favorite mother whale Siphon - four years ago. During this tour we saw lots of seabirds and 100's of porpoise and seals as well.
