An Overdue Update!

A humpback whale named "Pierce".

Hello everyone! Again I apologize for the lapse in the updates! It's not that we're not seeing whales, we are and plenty of them! In the last week we have added soem new individuals to our list, there are whales that we have not seen in the Bay of Fundy. The whales identified were: Dome, Pierce (Previously sighted this year by Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies), and Trickle. We also documented some familier whales that have just been sighted for the first time this year and they were: PD, Spoon, and Frost. These humpback whales bring our sightings to a total of 166 individual humpback whales! A record year for Brier Island Whale and Seabird Cruises!

Students of Westport Village School

On October 5, we had the pleasure of hosting a number of students and parents from our local school on their annual whale watch. Every fall I (Shelley) go into the classroom and give a power point presentation to the students of Westport Village School. A few days following the presentation, after a few cancellations because of weather, they were able to go out on a beautiful calm day. The first whale that was sighted was Rooftop (One of our adopt a whales) who as a reaction to dolphins that were nearby, breached much to our delight! After Rooftop approached us, we watched two more humpback whales that were identified as Trickle and Spar.

Our last cruise will be on October 16 at 130pm. We are sorry to see the season come to an end as we know that there are still whales out there to be see. However, we will be conducting some reseach cruises and I will keep you posted as to what was seen.

Great Day in the Fog!

Calf breaching next to our boat, the Cetacean Search

Fog certainly does not stop us from having great cruises and September 22nd proved just that. Our boat, the Cetacean Search was just heading out when we received a call that our other boat, the Mega Nova was with two humpback whales. On foggy days, the whale watching boats work

together to make it easier for others to locate the whales. Usually we rely on our ears to find them in the fog and this process can take us a bit of time. The first two whales we watched were Shark and her calf which were travelling. We watched them for a bit then decided to go and find something else. We then found Flash and her calf and an adult male named Cloud, who is the oldest whale of known age. He was born in 1977. Shortly after we started watching them, the calf started to breach......and breach......and breach for two hours straight. At one point, the calf breached so close that it it got some of our passengers wet. Our crowd went wild, and we even had our very own cheerleading section! It is indeed the whales and the people that make for a great cruise and in the 18 years that I have been whale watching, I have to say that this was the best day that I have ever experienced!

Another new species for 2007!

The high dorsal fin of a Sei whale!

Hi Everyone! Whale watching continues to be at its finest on the Bay of Fundy. We are still seeing a fair number of humpback whales in the area as well as some visitors to the Bay of Fundy. On September 18, our research boat, the Cetacean Search, went out on a short research cruise to locate other humpback whales that may be just outside our usual viewing area. We covered quite an area and when approaching one of the usual spots, we sighted several spouts in the distance. We were very excited thinking that we had found more humpbacks and that possibly we would be documenting some new ones. As we got closer, we noted the dorsal fins to be quite high and immediately identified them as Sei whales! This species is normally found further offshore and are not indigenous to the Bay of Fundy. They are though, a baleen whale and feed on the same food, copepods, as right whales. We were not surprised to see a right whale nearby. After recording the 16 Sei whales in the area, we continued up the Bay only to find a large pod, well, 50 or so, Pilot Whales. You may recall in an earlier post that we had sighted this species previously in the season.

North Atlantic Right Whale

We added a few new individuals since the last post as well. New to the Bay of Fundy are Owl, Kalimba and Raindrop's 2005 calf.

Humpback whale named Owl.

September is so far, so good!

Mocha's 2007 calf coming in for a close look!

I can't believe it's been almost two weeks since my last post. I'm so terribly sorry for keeping everyone waiting! The month thus far has been full of activity and more humpback whales being added to our sightings list. 2007 has proven to be a record year for sightings of individuals and of calves. The highlight was Mocha's calf who was very curious of the boat. This always makes for a special occasion as whale watchers become awed at just how intelligent these animals really are. The calf circled the boat and spy hopped several times so that everyone could see her. Calves are born in the Caribbean during the winter, making them about 9 months of age at this time of year.

Our count is now at 156 individual humpback whales. The whales that we have identified within the last two weeks have been: Tab, Blanco, Cone, Pyramid, Decimal, Chromosome and Quote. We also sighted Mr. Burns close by, who is one of our favourites! Mr Burns received his name from us because his doral fin resembles the nose of a character on a popular cartoon series. We have since found out that his "real" name is Ibex and he was born in 1988 to Petrel. He will always be Mr. Burns to us.

The highlight of the weeek was our short cruise to the Grand Manan Basin to take one of our volunteers to see the right whales, which she has never seen before. There were still a few in the area including one mother and calf pair.

We are looking forward to the upcoming weeks, as we never know what it may bring. We are hoping to conduct several more dedicated research cruises and try to find some of the individuals that have yet to be found.

Close Encounters of the Whale Kind!

Hello everyone and thanks for checking in! We are very pleased to report that we have been seeing many whales in the last few days, mainly humpback whales but also a few fin whales and minke whales. On August 28 we were pleased to sight North Atlantic Right Whale, the rarest large whale in the world. They are considered to be critically endangered.

Tigris coming in for a closer look!

Each cruise does indeed offer something different and on a few occasions the humpbacks approached the boat to examine the occupants within by spy hopping next to the boat. This is when they lift their head out of the water to see what is above. This curious behaviour does not happen very often but when it does, it is quite memorable! Each humpback whale seems to have their own personalities and there are some who are more prone to come close to the boats such as Peajack, Tigris and Lacuna.

Peajack and Tigris approaching our boat the Cetacean Search.

On top of a humpback's head, you will notice that they have a lot of bumps there and they are called tubercles. Each one has a hair growing from it that has a sensory function. So probably very sensitive to its surroundings. At times we will see humpbacks playing in rock weed streaks, raising their heads through the rock weed, seeming to like the feel of it on the tubercles. Lacuna was amusing us by doing this on August 30. It was fun to watch how whales will play with the kelp the same way a kitten plays with a roll of string!

We continue to add to our calf list. It has turned out to be a record breaking year with the arrival of 19 calves! This number is far better than our typical 3 or 4 that we usually see during the summer. The latest mother that has arrived in the Bay has been Wigwam.

What a great day!

OK, just when I thought things couldn't get any better....but on Wednesday, August 22 we decided to conduct an all day research cruise to determine just where the larger numbers of humpback whales have been hanging out. We have been seeing quite a number of humpbacks on our regular 3 hour whale watch cruise but we wanted to get a general idea of just what was out there. We left port at 6 AM and headed south to an area called the McDormand Patch, but were forced to go elsewhere when the fog shut in and we were glad we did! It wasnt' too far into the cruise when we spotted 9 whales in the vicinity and all were involved in surface feeding. We were able to determine that they were feeding on krill, a small shrimp-like crustacean. Once we documented and photographed the individuals, we headed further and found more humpbacks. As the day progressed we were able to record 39 individual humpback whales, including two mother and calf pairs! They were identified as Knuckles, Foggy and Vector. Other whales that we photoidentified and sighted for the frist time in 2007 were: Mallard, Stub (Who we haven't seen here in the Bay since 1988), Hopper, Sequin, Ditto, Dapple, Spy, Porthole, Bungee and Cat's Paw.
We also recorded a number of Pilot whales in the area as well. This species is not native to the Bay of Fundy but will occasionally wander into the area chasing prey. The most interesting behavior that we witnesses was when Sunburst and his companion charged after the Pilots, as if protecting their territory. Maybe there is a reason why these smaller toothed whales do not come into the Bay!

Sunburst chasing Pilot Whales

To top things off , Gremlin and Luna flipper slapped next to the boat and for the grand finale, Gremlin breached so close I could almost touch him.

I felt so fortunate that day to have a job that I love, where I can observe these animals in their own habitat and for them not to feel threatened by our boats. Things sure have come a long way since the whaling days when boat were a definite threat. Now these creatures can approach these boats, investigating the occupants within and not feel that threat, instead we are in awe!

Brier Island Whales and Weather

Greetings whale watchers! The weather and whales have been excellent at Brier Island The last few days! Not only has the fog cleared......and hoping it stays that way.....but the whales have moved in as well. We have noticed an abundance of krill in our waters, which has been enticing the herring and the whales into our area. Not only are we seeing more humpbacks righ now but also more fin whales too! Fin whales are the second largest whale in the world, reaching lengths of 80 feet! Most of the humpback whales that we have seen have seen have been individuals that we have sighted previously such as Ase, Milkyway, Baton, Patch, Flame, Gondolier, Slumber, Raindrop, Foggy and her 2007 calf, Colorado and Patches. The above photo is of Foggy's calf. We have also documented some new whales for our area and they were identified as Calanus, Unequal, Mets, Iron and Zero. On a sad note Colorado was sighted without her calf. We had previously documented her with a calf in June but were dismayed when she was without. She was close by Foggy and her calf as if she wanted to be nursemaid. Sad!

Humpback whale named Ase.

Another treat has been sightings of the rarest large whale in the world, North Atlantic Right Whales. We were pleased to see a mother and her calf.

The birds have been very numerous with sightings of Puffins, Northern Gannets, Northern Fulmars, Wilson's Storm Petrels, Greater Shearwaters, Sooty Shearwaters, an occasional Manx Shearwater, Red and Red Necked Phalaropes.

Phalaropes in flight.