Whale visitation on Cape Cod Bay

[Cathy Monaghan]

Here's a short video clip, shot by Bruce, of a whale that came alongside our boat as we were traveling on Cape Cod Bay this summer:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rnz3nmy3nifjh ... y.mov?dl=0


-Cathy
CD32 Realization, #3
Rahway, NJ
Raritan Bay

[Jim Walsh]

Very nice. It's not often you have the opportunity to shoot a video or get a decent photo of whales.

[casampson]

Do you have any idea what kind of whale it was?

[Sea Hunt Video]

Not much to go on. I'll take a "SWAG".

Given the size and position of the dorsal fin (small and well back from blow hole) I am going to make a SWAG that it "might be" a humpback whale.

Great video

[Steve Laume]

That is a Fin Whale. They tend to be in close to shore at the cape. Fin whales stay pretty flat and you don't see the flukes when they sound.

We went out to see Humpbacks a few years ago. They are usually out further on the bank and tend to travel in twos and threes. They breath about three times and then sound with their flukes in the air as they go down. On the way back to P Town a Fin surfaced right in front of us in a crossing situation. It was so close I didn't turn the wheel for fear of hitting him in the head or tail. We were motor sailing so I just but it in neutral and left it up to the whale to clear us. He moved away without incident but then came back towards use. That un-nerved me a bit and I was ready to be clear of him. We got some stills of the Humpbacks but the video is pretty amazing. I have seen Pilot whales just off shore while rounding the cape as well. The grace of these huge animals is something to behold. They seem to move so slow but with incredible power and dignity, Steve.

[Sea Hunt Video]

Rain and high winds all day today. Blah

Steve, I defer to your local knowledge. Sadly, I know very little about whales. The whale in Bruce's video does look like a fin whale. How do you distinguish between humpback and fin whale just from what is shown in this video

[Steve Laume]

Roberto, how do you tell the difference between a Mini Cooper and a Corvette if one should drive by? How about a Typhoon and a Beetle Cat? A Robin and a Blue Jay? It is just a matter of observing the details and being familiar with the identifying traits.

I keep a laminated identification card of whales and dolphins on Raven. I picked it up when we were out on the Cape at the National Seashore gift shop. We also carry a field guide of North Atlantic Wildlife. This is a great book that covers everything from plankton and seaweed to the birds and whales you might encounter when off shore. One of the nice features of this book is that it gives you the ranges of the various species as well as their habits and descriptions.

I found this site, which gives a good description of the different whales. If you look at the Humpback and Fin, it is easy to see the difference.

Knowing what you are seeing adds to the enjoyment of the encounter, Steve.

http://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-North ... c+wildlife

https://acsonline.org/fact-sheets/fin-whale/

[Sea Hunt Video]

Thank you Steve. It is amazing that you are able to distinguish between a fin whale and a humpback whale just from the very little that surfaces in Bruce's excellent video. You must be a true cetacean expert.

[Jim Walsh]

I have the same Field Guide to North Atlantic Wildlife that Steve mentioned. It is the best guide I've found. I found it very handy in identifying the different species of porpoise I encountered and it helped immensely in identifying the birds encountered offshore. The birds simply can't resist coming over to see who the strange visitor is to their realm, whereas the porpoises varied from pod to pod. Some made a beeline toward the boat and some kept their distance.

[Skeep]

And if I saw something the size of that surface on Lake Murray, South Carolina, I would determine the end had come.

[Steve Laume]

Ocean sailing is amazing because you never know what you might see. I have used that field guide to determine different species of whales, dolphins, birds, seaweed, crabs, fish and even flying fish. I also keep a couple of bird books on board. As well as a field guide to boats I picked up somewhere along the line. It is not current but has sail insignias and outlines to help you determine which classic boat you are looking at. Rest assured I also have the latest copy of the CD membership directory so I can identify individual Cape Dories too.

The pelagic birds are the best, Steve.

[Stan W.]

Steve is right, that is a fin whale, although around Cape Cod Bay they are usually called fin-back whales. They are huge, but all you ever see are the back and the fin. They do not jump or tail slap like the smaller but more entertaining hump-backs. The third kind of large whale found in Cape Cod Bay is the right whale. These used to be very rare, having been hunted to the brink of extinction, but they are starting to come back and sightings are becoming more common.

[Cathy Monaghan]

That is a Fin Whale. They tend to be in close to shore at the cape. Fin whales stay pretty flat and you don't see the flukes when they sound.

We went out to see Humpbacks a few years ago. They are usually out further on the bank and tend to travel in twos and threes. They breath about three times and then sound with their flukes in the air as they go down. On the way back to P Town a Fin surfaced right in front of us in a crossing situation. It was so close I didn't turn the wheel for fear of hitting him in the head or tail. We were motor sailing so I just but it in neutral and left it up to the whale to clear us. He moved away without incident but then came back towards use. That un-nerved me a bit and I was ready to be clear of him. We got some stills of the Humpbacks but the video is pretty amazing. I have seen Pilot whales just off shore while rounding the cape as well. The grace of these huge animals is something to behold. They seem to move so slow but with incredible power and dignity, Steve.

Steve is correct. It was a fin whale. It was huge -- larger than our boat -- but not as large as they get. My guess is that it was about 40 feet long. It was swimming right off our port side on a parallel course.

Robert asked about how to tell the difference between a fin and humpback whale. Well, that fin is one of the identifiers. Some whales have fins and others don't. The Pacific Right Whale, for example, lacks a dorsal fin. The humpback has a lumpy snout, if that's what you call it, maybe it's its head, and a lumpy back aft of it's dorsal fin. And the dorsal fin on a humpback is different from the fin on a finback whale. The finback is similar to the Sei whale, but it was definitely a finback.

Fin whale: http://us.whales.org/species-guide/fin-whale
Sei whale: http://us.whales.org/species-guide/sei-whale
Humpback whale: http://us.whales.org/species-guide/humpback-whale

Whale/Dolphin/Porpoise Identification Guide: http://www.vanaqua.org/files/4714/1295/ ... _Guide.pdf


-Cathy
CD32 Realization, #3
Rahway, NJ
Raritan Bay