Humpback Whales Feeding 8/14/08 & 8/16/08

Boxer_21 · #1 08-19-2008, 03:10 PM

Last week I went on a couple of whale watches out of Gloucester, MA (I normally go out of Rye, NH). I'd been out that way a couple of times before, but never had this much excitement! The naturalist on the boat estimated that there were at least 30 individual Humpbacks in the area including several mother and calf pairs. They were all very busy feeding on sandlance. They were using several different techniques to get the job done and this led to some of the most amazing displays I'd ever seen and I came home with some of the best photos I'd ever taken. It was amazing! Below are some links to some of the photos. I also got some on video which I'll post the links to once I get those up. Enjoy!

August 14, 2008
Photo#1 - A Humpback named Tornado open mouth feeding.
Photo#2 - A young Humpback spyhopping (raising it's head out of the water - you're looking at it's chin).
Photo#3 - Tornado slamming down onto the surface to stun the fish.
Photo#4 - A Humpback named Etch-a-Sketch raising her flukes.
Photo#5 - A Humpback kickfeeding (slapping it's tail on the surface), a technique that they use to stun fish.
Photo#6 - Surfacing with a mouth full of water and fish.
Photo#7 - A Humpback named Crown raising her flukes.
Photo#8 - There are at least 7 Humpbacks in this photo (2 in front, a group of 3 towards the left corner, a single one a little bit behind the trio, and the last one is just below the horizon about 1/4 in from the right).

August 16, 2008
Photo#1 - A young, playful calf rolling over at the surface.
Photo#2 - A trio of Humpbacks surfacing with their mouths full of fish and water.
Photo#3 - A pair of Humpbacks open mouth feeding.
Photo#4 - A nice look inside a Humpback's mouth.
Photo#5 - Another pair of Humpbacks surfacing with their mouths full of fish and water.
Photo#6 - Another Humpback kickfeeding.
Photo#7 - A Humpback named Tornado open mouth feeding. This is a full frame shot at 75mm to show how close she was to the boat!
Photo#8 - A Humpback named Filament raising her flukes.
Photo#9 - Filament dragging, a technique used to help push the water out so they can swallow the fish.

Gruntsmom · #2 08-19-2008, 03:23 PM

Very impressive photos - thanks for sharing!! Looking forward to your videos.

RolenKisses · #3 08-19-2008, 03:31 PM

Fantastic pictures!

Thanks for sharing!

zomo · #4 08-19-2008, 05:21 PM

How blessed you are to have seen and taken photos of this magnificent beauty of nature. Great pics. !!!

boxmom · #5 08-19-2008, 05:34 PM

Those are great! What a fun couple of days! I know nothing about whales, do the birds just like to hang out with them? They are so close, you think they would be scared.

Just-A-Clown · #6 08-19-2008, 05:52 PM

Beautiful pictures Thank you for sharing

**Maniago** · #7 08-19-2008, 06:29 PM

Mandy

Amazing photos!!!

Boxer_21 · #8 08-19-2008, 08:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by boxmom

Those are great! What a fun couple of days! I know nothing about whales, do the birds just like to hang out with them? They are so close, you think they would be scared.

The birds are mainly there to get the fish that the whales miss. You'd think that they'd be afraid, but it's the complete opposite. Some of the seagulls will actually land on the whale's head as it's filtering out the water! Very funny to watch.

Thanks everyone for your comments! I was in awe when this first started - I actually still am in awe when I look at these photos. It's definitely not something you see every time you go out there. It spectacular to say the least.

Here are the video clips that I mentioned above. They are quite large so they make some time to download if you're not on high speed internet. They're also all in Quicktime (.mov) format.

#1 - Playful calf doing what's called a 'headstand'.
#2 - Compass "picking up" her calf.
#3 - Playful Calf rolling out from under the boat.
#4 - Two Humpbacks surfacing with their mouths wide open!
#5 - A whale named Leukos doing a chin breach to stun some fish.
#6 - Leukos coming back up for food.

x19er · #9 08-20-2008, 01:21 AM

Great photos and what a super subject!

Widges · #10 08-20-2008, 09:41 AM

amazing, fantastic pics. Thank you so much for sharing. I can't wait for my daughter to get home from school to show them to her - she LOVES all animals but whales are her favourite.