Whale Watching and More Adventures (following 3 posts)

Monday, June 28, Ali Crandall and I headed to Gloucester, MA. I month or so ago I got a coupon for Whale Watching tickets for $25 a ticket. When we left the Boston area it was already getting hot. When we arrived it was feeling a bit cooler. Our boat we went on was the Hurricane II.

Ali and I waiting for the boat to take off.

As we were sitting there. I looked over at the other boats at the dock and I saw that boat up on the dock and on cider blocks. I said to Ali how do you think they got that boat up there. Ali said well they probably just drove it right up there. I said I would think they would have to have a crane of some sort to pull it up there or maybe they did just drive it up on the dock and on the cinder blocks. Then Ali said oh you mean that boat not the one in the water. I told her well of course the boat in the water was driven right up to where it was. We got a good chuckle out of it.  

There were so many lighthouses out here. We saw 5 or more lighthouses on our way out to sea.

Here is another one.

Here is our first Whale sighting.

When looking for whales they look for the spray of the whale. If you look really hard you can see the spray. Not only air is released but also mucus and nitrogen which has been stored up while diving. They can hold their breath for nearly 30 minutes depending on the size of their lungs. The smaller Whales can hold their breath for 15 minutes. The exhalation is released into the comparably lower-pressure, colder atmosphere, and any water vapor condenses. This spray, is often visible from far away as a white splash, which can also be partially caused by water resting on top of the blowhole.

Ali looking for more Whales.

The other thing you can see when you are closer is the green slim that emits from the skin of the Whale. If you look close you can see a hint of green around the Whale.

If they are going to dive deep the Whale will use his tail to dive deep.

The other thing you can see when you are closer is the bubbles. The Whale was right below me here and was blowing air in the water. I was hoping he was going to come up right in front of us but he was just swimming under the ship.

After I saw the bubbles in front of me the Whales who's name is Pixar came up right to the side of the front of the boat. (They name Whales by their tails. Their tails are like our finger prints and there is no two the same. On this Whales tail is the shape of the lamp from the Pixar movies.)

Swimming closer

You can see the blowhole.

There he goes for a dive.

Pixar was really curious about us and what we were doing. He swam from one side of the boat to the other, to the back, to the front. He was playing with us and this other boat saw all the fun we were having and thought they would come by and see what was going on over at our boat.

Pixar saw the other boat and thought he would go check them out too.

Another thing they look for is Birds. The Whales will stir up the fish and chase them to the surface and the birds will come along and scoop them up out of the water. It is a little hard to see here but there is a ton of birds in the picture flying just a little over the water.

We saw all we could see and are heading back to Gloucester. It was a fun time. There was a pod of Dolphins but they never surfaced so we didn't get to see them. The Whales didn't do any fun tricks for us they just swam and dived. We had a good time. A little about where we went was Jefferys Ledge which is like an under water Rocky Mountains. That is where the big fish like Halibut and Tuna hang out. We saw a finback and her calf which the tour guides said they have never seen that before. We also saw humpback whales. It was a very nice day to go out and see the Whales.