April 3, 2022
R/V Shearwater

Today’s cruise focused on finding right whales.  The sea height was very low in the morning and early afternoon, which made the conditions great for spotting whales. Although the morning was slow for finding right whales, around noon, we found 3 mom/calf right whale pairs!  The moms observed were #1817 (Silt), #2040 (Naevus), and #3430.  Each mom whale was seen skim feeding, with each of their calves following closely behind them!  These were the first mom/calf pairs seen by R/V Shearwater in 2022, so everyone on board was extremely excited!

Later in the afternoon, we saw two right whales in a low energy SAG off of Race Point Beach.  As we approached them, they started to swim next to each other and both dove down with their flukes raised out of the water.

It was a very exciting day out on Shearwater and I can’t wait to see who we find next time we go out!

-Corry

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April 3, 2022
Aerial Survey

This week had been a long one. Not of long field days (which are tiring but fun!), but of long office days accompanied by some very challenging weather. Unfortunately, high winds, low clouds and rain had kept us grounded for what seemed like an eternity. The weekend rolled around and Sunday looked like an amazing weather window. Finally! Wanting to take full advantage of this beautiful day, we took off bright and early; our wheels were up by 0730am. Low winds, clear skies and bright sunshine was in store for us. A beautiful spring day here on Cape Cod.

Since it had been a full week since our last survey, we wanted to survey as much as possible. A lot can change in a week and we were eager to see where the whales were and what they were up to. We decided early on that we would cover the entire bay and if conditions allowed, some additional coverage of the eastern outer shore of Cape Cod. We also decided to fly a little further east than we normally do – to check out some areas that had not yet been surveyed. The whales have been keeping us on our toes this season by switching up their timing. Everything has seemed to be coming early this year, not just the whales, but other flora and fauna as well.

The bay was pretty quiet as far as right whale sightings go. We documented a total of six right whales. All, interestingly enough, mother/calf pairs! It seems a small nursery group has come together. We identified the mothers as #2614 Tripelago, #2040 Naevus, and #3430. This was the first time Naevus and #3430 have been seen with their calves since they were in their southeast calving grounds! It is always a relief to see that they have successfully made the treacherous journey north. Thankfully, all of the mothers were seen happily feeding. They have a lot of weight to put back on! All three calves looked great as well.

While we were spending time documenting Naevus and her calf, we noticed that her calf had its mouth open while it was swimming next to mom. This (very adorable) behavior is most likely the beginning process of them learning to feed for themselves. These calves learn by watching and imitating their mothers. Although it will be some time before they are fully weaned, it is amazing to see them trying things out on their own!

In addition to the right whales seen, we also documented ten fin whales and six humpback whales. All in all, it was a fantastic day in the air. Weather is continuing to look good, so we are eager to spend more time in the field!

-Carolyn

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April 5, 2022
Aerial Survey

Cape Cod Bay, and adjacent waters, seem to be very quiet when we should be ramping up to the peak. We have been coordinating with other aerial teams to get good coverage of areas where the right whales could be, but so far none of us have found large aggregations.

We only found 3 mom/calf pairs Sunday, but based on vessel and land sightings know there were at least 6 other right whales present. With that knowledge we took off early on Tuesday to cover some of Massachusetts Bay and all of Cape Cod Bay again.

In the north we found a large number of humpback and fin whales on Stellwagen Bank and just outside the mouth of Cape Cod Bay. We continued on our survey and did not sight any right whales until our second to last track line in the bay (TL 14). We hear reports on the radio of sightings at the east entrance of the canal, and lo and behold, that is where they still were.

Within a 3 nm area, we documented 15 right whales (16 if you count the calf we know was with its mom). These included 3 mom/calf pairs (#1620 Mantis, #2614 Tripelago, and #3430) and a mix of individuals we have seen this season and not. Returning individuals included juvenile male #4523 and adult male #3510 Twister. A new individual for the season was adult male #4423 Nebula, who survived a severe entanglement in 2019 and is significantly scarred because of it. Almost all were feeding in the southwest corner of the bay between the canal and Sandy Neck.

We refueled at Chatham (CQX) before flying our final track off the eastern shore of Cape Cod. We expected to find some right whales on this line since that morning our colleagues at Northeast Fisheries Science Center documented 4 individuals east of Eastham. We did not resight them (according to the other team they were heading north toward the opening of CCB), but we did see our first humpback mom/calf pair for the season.

We are looking forward to getting back up and seeing if more whales have returned to the bay, or if our season is winding down. Hoping to get back up one day this weekend, and then the following week’s weather looks promising (as of now).

– Brigid

April 10, 2022
Aerial Survey

The wind and wave forecasts for Sunday, April 10th were marginal at best for conducting an effective aerial survey but we hadn’t flown since April 5th so we decided to go for it. Our surveys for the past few weeks had been surprisingly quiet. This time last year we were recording 60-85 right whale individuals in Cape Cod Bay every flight, but we haven’t seen over 20 right whales in the bay since early March. Though it has been exciting to see this year’s right whale mom & calf pairs arrive in the bay, it was disconcerting that we didn’t know where the rest of the individuals were.

Our concerns about the conditions for today’s flight grew as we took off and began our survey by traveling south along the ocean-side of the eastern Cape. The winds’ impact on sea state conditions would make sighting any whales difficult and the gusts would make circling any whales we did manage to see a challenge for the pilots. We aborted our transit down the coast and headed straight towards southern Cape Cod Bay hoping for better survey conditions.

Outlook for the flight remained bleak when we didn’t document any whales on our first few survey lines. The few whales we had on our last few flights, including the moms with their calves, had been in the southwest corner of the bay near the Cape Cod Canal. Unfortunately, we were unable to spot any whales when surveying that area.
Finally, Brigid managed to spot a right whale briefly break the surface when we were ~7 miles east of Surfside Beach, Plymouth. We broke from our track line to document the individual and discovered that the individual was just one of many in a large aggregation of whales! There were many right whales here, but since they were subsurface feeding just below the white caps, they were only visible when we flew directly overhead. The rough sighting conditions and strong wind gusts made relocating individuals and effectively circling them for documentation extremely difficult, but thanks to great flying by our pilots we were able to document all 18 right whales in this area in about 75 minutes. A few of the moms that we had observed over our last few flights were here with their calves, including: EGNO2614/Tripelago, EGNO1620/Mantis, EGNO 3430 and EGNO1812/Silt. We were thrilled to see that some of the whales that had left the bay last month had returned, including EGNO3790/Fission & EGNO 1719. A highlight for the day was observing EGNO 4095, who spent a half-hour breaching and lobtailing at the surface as we documented him and the other nearby whales.

We landed back at Provincetown at 2pm after documenting 25 right whales in just the southern half of the bay amidst challenging sighting conditions. Although it was a difficult flight, it seems like it will be an important one as it suggests that we are seeing an influx of whales in the bay in response to some change in their food resource. Over the next couple of flights and research cruises we’ll hopefully get a better idea of how many whales have returned to Cape Cod Bay and get some answers as to what caused them to abruptly leave and return.

– Ryan

April 13, 2022
Aerial Survey

We managed to cover a lot of area on this Wednesday. We began the survey an hour after sunrise, the earliest we can start, and took off from Provincetown Municipal Airport at 07:15 to fly Cape Cod Bay south to north. From our transit over Barnstable, we were able to see lots of whales off the bat and quickly resighted them on track line 14.

A large aggregation starting off Sandy Neck and extending to Wood End consisted of about 40 right whales, all feeding. They were fairly easy to work, and we finished the survey close to noon. This included 7 m/c pairs (ones we have been seeing regularly), and although nearly all were whales we had seen before there were a few new to us for the season. This includes #3623 Bongo, a 16 year-old male who we see in Cape Cod Bay every few years or so. Another new individual was adult male #1048, who was first sighted at an unknown age in 1980, and also one we see sporadically.

There had been opportunistic sightings of right whales in Ipswich Harbor by the Coast Guard, which is a rarity, and since we had time, energy, and weather, we decided to survey Cape Ann and Massachusetts Bay. On this second leg of our flight we found another 20 right whales or so, and also our first sei whale sightings of the season. Sei whales feed on the same copepods that right whales do, and are typically an indicator that the food resource is particularly strong. Off Rockport, we sighted a mix of previously sighted and new individuals as well. #1701 Aphrodite is an adult female we first sighted in January in Cape Cod Bay, and on this day was skim feeding close to shore. Close by was a new whale for us this year: #1158 Bud. Bud is a breeding female first seen in 1981 at an unknown age, making her at least 42 years old. She is only known to have had one calf (in 1991), and though she is rarely seen in Cape Cod Bay and has been sighted in adjacent waters often for her history.

Unfortunately, with more obvious whales and nice weather we tend to see more people violating the 500 yard approach limit. On this day in particular, we sighted two aircrafts circling at about 900’; this is not only illegal but dangerous when we are trying to work whales in the area at a similar altitude. Most people are not aware of the rule, and more outreach is likely needed if people are expected to comply.

We have about a month left of our season, and are looking forward to what we find on our remaining flights.

– Brigid

April 23, 2022
R/V Shearwater

We had a great day out on the water today! The weather was nice throughout the whole day, only slightly picking up on our commute back to dock.  But overall, the waters were relatively calm so it was easy to spot the whales once we arrive to the area they were feeding.

We needed up seeing 10 different right whales, including one mom/calf pair!  The mom and calf observed were #2360 Derecha, and 2022 Calf Of #2360.  This was the first time Derecha and her calf were seen from R/V Shearwater this season, so we were all very excited to see them!  All of the whales observed, aside from the calf, were skim feeding. A few of the whales came right up next to the boat so we were able to get great views at them!

On our commute home, we spotted a couple stray balloons floating at the surface, so we made some quick stops to go pick them up.

I can’t wait to see which whales we see next time we go out on R/V Shearwater!

– Corry Psutka

April 23, 2022
Aerial Survey

On Saturday 23 April 2022, we set off at 7:30 to complete a Cape Cod Bay survey from south to north, followed by a Mass Bay survey. Despite nice conditions, we barely finished Cape Cod Bay because of what we found.

On our first track (16, which runs parallel to the eastern shore of Cape Cod) we found a lot of activity: humpbacks, sei whales, and right whales. Our third right whale of the day was no other than #3560 Snow Cone, who despite being entangled gave birth to a healthy calf this winter. We notified our disentanglement team, documented, and continued on our way knowing we could be called back to help resight them. We found a lot of other right whales on this track, including two old males, #1513 Crest and #1409 Cairn, feeding off of Nauset. We don’t typically find many right whales off the back side so they were interesting sightings.

Once we got to the bay, we sighted lots more in the southwest near the canal. There were a few mom and calves in that area and in total we documented 10 pairs throughout the flight, our most for the season. We sighted all 7 pairs that we had already sighted and 3 new arrivals: #1515, #3157 and of course Snow Cone.

We got redirected once RV Ibis did not have any luck finding Snow Cone and her calf. Unfortunately, we were not successful in relocating them either; we saw the other individuals from earlier in the day, and completed abridged tracks to cover the area, to no avail.

We returned to finish our remaining five tracks lines in the opposite direction (north to south), and found more feeding right whales concentrated in the west off Plymouth Harbor.  All said and done, we documented 58 right whales with all but one (Snow Cone) feeding. It was a long, but rewarding day, and we are heading back up tomorrow (Sunday) to conduct an eastern shore survey.

– Brigid