Cape Cod - 2003 Whale Watch

Saturday, August 30, continued
After that excellent breakfast, we headed back to the pier. I stopped to look at some birds and then we got on the Dolphin Fleet boat at about 8:45 a.m. There are two major whale watching lines in Provincetown. Joan chose the Dolphin Fleet because they work with the Center for Coastal Studies and have a researcher on board every trip. (2006 update: The Center for Coastal Studies is now associated with the Portuguese Princess cruises and no longer with Dolphin Fleet. 2008 update: The Portuguese Princess and Dolphin Fleet have now merged operations.) The boat wasn't too crowded as we waited for our departure. We waited some more and then a while longer. The Captain made an announcement that the departure would be delayed. We finally left after 9:30; the boat was now more crowded because many of the people who were scheduled for the 9:30 sailing had gotten on board. (We didn't know it then, but you can print out a discount coupon from their website at http://whalewatch.com/.)

As we sailed out of the harbor, we saw large numbers of Double-crested Cormorants on the jetty. However, I was surprised to see Great Egrets on the jetty's rocks. The waters were quite calm, but it was still quite foggy out. We passed several lighthouses on the shore.

No, the ghostly apparition isn't the boat we sailed on. It is a replica of the Kalmar Nyckel. The original boat sailed from Sweden and brought the first permanent European settlers to the Delaware in the 1600s. It carried 24 settlers from four countries, Sweden, Finland, Holland, and Germany. They were joined by a black freedman from the Caribbean who was known as the Black Swede. The Kalmar Nyckel is usually berthed in Delaware but was up in Provincetown for a short time this summer. We had looked at it while it was at the pier earlier in the morning.

Joan and I were hoping to find seabirds while traveling to the area where they would find whales. We soon saw some Wilson's Storm-Petrels. These small birds were rapid flyers and flew close to the surface of the water. They were picking plankton off the surface of the water and were our constant companions once we were out in open water.

The naturalist gave a lecture about the different types of whales and the history of whaling in the area. She mentioned the ones we had a chance of seeing. She said that the Dolphin Fleet organized the first commercial whale watching trips on the East Coast and that they were the largest whale watching company in the country. She then told us a little about the Center for Coastal Studies. Aside from the research they do, they are the only group authorized by the United States Government to free whales entangled in fishing lines and buoys at sea on the East Coast. Since 1984, they have freed more than 60 whales!

Whale splash The boat finally came to an area where a whale was spotted. Not one, not two, but five Humpback Whales were in the area—all visible at once! Four were adults, one a whale born this year. The naturalist was able to name several of them by the patterns on the undersides of their flukes. We also got a brief glimpse at a Minke Whale in the same area.

It normally is hard enough to figure out where a whale may appear and then choose the "right" moment to snap a picture. But with most digital cameras, the problem is more acute because there is a delay between pressing the shutter release and when the camera decides to take the picture. As the picture to the right shows, the camera does not always decide so well! Below are some of my better guesses.

We passed several fishing vessels on the trip back to the dock. The highlight of the return was a quick look at a Parasitic Jaeger. Joan also saw a Northern Gannett which I missed.

Once back in Provincetown, we wandered around for a while, browsing in different shops. We ate lunch in a small restaurant whose name I have no reason to remember. I had a Cajun chicken sandwich—not blackened, not spicy, not good.

We made a quick stop to purchase some salt water taffy and then headed for the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.


Cropped images showing the tails which help identify the whales

Cape Cod 2003