Cape Cod, Massachusetts
2011 July 05--July 12, Tuesday - Tuesday  (See new uploaded video below!) 

We spent an awesome week here in Cape Cod with the humpback whales and some of their dearest human friends from the International Fund for Animal Welfare!  We were helping scientists on boats find humpbacks doing some very special activities such as 'bubble feeding', and we also were able to help find some whales entangled in fishing gear that local rescue groups could help from boats.  (Not all whales survive the ordeal of becoming entangled in gill nets, we're sorry to say.  We'll show a photo of only one who didn't survive it; sadly there are many each year.)  

What a privilege it has been.  Long days of flying 'low and slow', but never unrewarding. Finding whales is a whole lot easier than finding whale sharks in the Gulf of Mexico!  For one thing, they breathe, so sooner or later you'll see a spout.  For another, they frolic a lot on the surface, and it's hard to miss the splashing and slapping of their pectoral fins and tails or their beautiful backs as they roll and dive and occasionally breach so gracefully.  Finally, many whales are in an area called Stellwagen Bank -- a mere 11-minute flight from Plymouth Airport in Massachusetts!  

We were flying to support a variety of scientists working in the area, from NGOs, universities, and government agencies.  Their research is compiling valuable data on the habits, needs, and status of these magnificent marine mammals who spend spring through fall in the Cape Cod area.  We were also able to help in an additional way, by searching to confirm sightings of humpback whales who had become entangled in fishing gear (usually gill nets), and helping to guide rescue boats who went to help disentangle the whales.  We are delighted to be able to share wth you some of the fantastic views we had of the marine life in these waters, and of course especially the humpback whales.  We'll include just a few fishing boats, whale-watching boats, and other things to give you a sense of scale.  

Along with the magnificent marine life, there were also things we saw every day that made us groan -- tuna fishing boats everywhere, some trailing squid bait, some using kites to dangle more bait.  And there were fish spotters flying most every day that the sea was calm enough to fish.  All we could think was that those fish haven't got a chance! I had to ask several times, on seeing so many buoys for gill nets and lobster traps everywhere, is this part of the marine sanctuary too?  The answer was always Yes.  Seemed to me more like a deadly obstacle course than a sanctuary.  Kind of absurd really, like designating a portion of the freeway as a dog park.  But fisheries are kind of sacrosanct to legislators.  Personally, I'd rather people lost their appetites for sushi, as I did long ago.  At some level I can accept that these issues are not simple, that sustainable fishing is not really an oxymoron when viewed on other than an individual basis, that words like "industry" and "natural resources" when applied to killing fish to have some merit.  But I forget all that when I see men in boats and planes with nets and trawling equipment heading for the sea, and my insides panic for the animals about to be ambushed.  But I've digressed.

Some of the experts flying with us could identify individual whales by the 'signatures' on the undersides of their flukes (tails).  Oh it was exciting to hear their excitement as they shouted that the whale we had just watched make that beautiful dive was "Crown" or other names that maybe I'm not supposed to mention.  It felt to them as though they were seeing their dearest of friends return home.  By the end of the week, we had begun to recognize distinctive features in the ridges and colorations of those flukes, and I can tell you it is very exciting to start to recognize them individually!

We saw many mothers with calves, some of the calves as large as one-third the size of their mothers or larger.  We also witnessed the smallest calf of our whole trip, one who was barely one-quarter as long as mom, and who spent a lot of time nursing.  We would have been thrilled to have stayed over that pair watching them for a long while, but when we realized that the whale-watching boats had begun to flock to our position when we circled for very long, we decided we needed to leave this pair in peace quickly!

In almost all instances where a mother and calf were 'underway' -- traveling, rather than feeding or playing or resting -- there was a larger whale with them.  We learned that it is typical for a male humpback to accompany a mother and calf when they are moving.  It isn't necessarily the father of the calf; but some male will take the responsibility to escort mom and calf.  Pretty neat, we thought.  

The "bubble-feeding" (also called bubble-net feeding or fishing) is a most impressive technique these animals use to herd their prey (here the typical prey is sandeels, a small, slender, ubiquitous fish).  Sometimes a solitary whale did it, but more often there was a group of up to six whales cooperatively forming these bubble rings.  They would dive down and then blow a ring of bubbles up to the surface. They then swim upward through the ring with their mouths wide open, taking in hundreds, perhaps thousands of fish and straining all the water out through their baleen (grooves in the sides of their mouths).  These bubbles made some of the most beautiful sights on the water we have ever seen.

You'll also see a few photos of basking sharks -- not great photos, but hey, they're not whales, remember?  They weren't at the surface showing their lovely faces or fins, but you'll see their outlines pretty clearly.  And near the one dead humpback we'll show you, you'll see our attempted photograph of what was thousands of small sharks (blues?) gathered.  A floating buffet for birds and sharks, that dead humpback was.  We were told that many great white sharks had been spotted south of Cape Cod, along the coasts where there are many fur seals this time of year.  We got one photo (yea Jake!) of a great white in the shallows off of Monomoy Island, no doubt awaiting his fresh seal breakfast.  And finally, we did see one leatherback turtle our first day out on Tuesday July 5, but never could find another, nor did we get a good photo.  We even asked all the fish spotters to keep an eye out for one for us!  But know that even those never-tiring fellas are up there.  
 
The photos of cloud buildups are from our flight up there, where we were running from big storms through the Richmond, Virginia and DC areas.  The weather during the week in Cape Cod was almost perfect, or near enough that it didn't stop us from flying much.   

If you would like higher-resolution versions of any of these, as always, just contact us and ask.  If they belong to one of the other folks who flew with us, we'll direct you to them for permission.
(Remember, you need only click on any one of these photos, and you will automatically be taken to a somewhat-higher-resolution version of it.  Then just click on your right arrow button to proceed through each of the short galleries.  Go to the full article for all of the galleries, and at the end of each one, click on the first photo of the next one to proceed.)   ENJOY!!!

With all that said and no more, we'll let these photos and videos speak for themselves.

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Initial photos and video taken with point-and-shoot camera!

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