Whale Watching Gloucester
Current Whale Sightings
April 3, 2008
While our first whale watch of the season is still a few weeks away (April 19th) we are greatly encouraged by the first-hand reports we have been recieving from fishermen who have been working on the bank all winter. It seems that Stellwagen Bank has been very productive for fishermen this winter as some fishermen have reported towing (towing the net) for only 10 minutes and catching more than the 800 pounds of Cod Fish that they are allowed to take in a day. What does this have to do with whales you might ask? Well, Cod Fish are known to feed predominantly on Sand Lance (aka "Sand Eels") which is the main prey of the whales in the area as well, Thus when we heard of the abundance of Cod Fish on the bank we were hopeful that the whales would soon follow.....and they did!
Last week we started recieving reports of 30-40 whales feeding on Stellwagen Bank. One fishermen I spoke to said that the whales that he has been seeing are "....the ones that spout like this" and he made a V-shape with his hands. This actually indicates that he may have seen a good number of North Atlantic Right Whales which (due to thier widely spaced blowholes) produce a V-shaped spout when seen at the right angle. Right Whales are the rarest of the great whales with fewer than 300 left in existence. Right Whales breed off the coast of northern Florida/Georgia during the winter and migrate north to the Bay of Fundy in Canada in the spring. Thus nearly the entire population passes through the Gulf of Maine/Stellwagen Bank area in March and April. Only when Stellwagen Bank is very productive (in terms of fish and plankton) will these whales linger in the area as they seem to be doing now.
So while it seems that at least a significant portion of the whales on Stellwagen right now may be Right Whales, I would venture to guess that there are a good number of Humpback Whales and Finback Whales returning from thier breeding grounds as well (Humpbacks breed in the Caribbean and usually return in early April and Fin Whales are one of the most myterious of the great whales....no one knows where they breed but they too arrive in large numbers in April when conditions are right).
So we are very excited to get out there for ourselves. We hope you will consider joining us, but if you are not able to please check back for more sighting updates soon!
S. Jay Frontierro
7 Seas Whale Watch Naturalist