Lakeland Eye

Provincetown Harbour.

The Dolphin Fleet Whale Watching Boats.....

Our craft for the morning.

The Dolphin Fleet Boats always have a Marine Biologist on the sailings, and with the naturalists on board they explained the background of whales and other environmental information including the most common whales found off Cape Cod's waters were the Humpback, Finback, also called the Razorback, and Minke, and if we were lucky, the very rare and endangered Right Whale. Whales are members of the same marine order as dolphins and porpoises. They are the only mammals, other than manatees (seacows) that live their entire lives in the water, and the only mammals that have adapted to life in the open oceans.

Baleen. Baleen is not bone, but is composed of keratin, the same substance as hair, horn, claws and nails. The whales found off Cape Cod are baleen whales. Baleens have no teeth, but instead have a series of stiff vertical plates with a fringed end hanging from the inside of their upper jaw. This baleen acts as a filtration system that strains out the tiny animals that are in the water. The whale then takes the food off the baleen with its tongue–think food stuck to someone's moustache! A whale can have hundreds of kilograms of water in its mouth at one time!

Clouding over leaving port, but looks like it's going to be a good dry day and it's rumoured that there are a lot of Whales in the area.........

Long Point Light......

....and Harbour Seals.

Not many whale watchers on board......

...but all patiently awaiting the first encounter....

Ten minutes out of port.....someone excitedly shouts Whales.....two Finbacks appear off the port bow

It is the second largest whale, 70 to 80 ft long, and weighing over 70 tons, and the second largest living animal after the Blue Whale

We also picked up an escort of Dolphins......

A few fishing boats about, but thankfully these wonderful sea going mammals are protected in these waters from commercial whaling, and from so called scientific investigation, ie lethal scientific research!!....Surprise, surprise, the whale meat is then sold on the commercial market! Those opposed to whaling argue that a whale can only be killed once but watched many times, so the economic argument should firmly support the side of not hunting whales. Mankind has had a relationship with whales for thousands of years. The oldest records of whale hunts are rock carvings in South Korea that date back to 6000 BC and although whale meat has little commercial value today, it is still considered a delicacy, particularly in Norway and Japan. Historically, as the pattern of exploitation changed over the years, so different species became the focus of the whalers, targeting the largest and slowest whale species first, demolishing one species after another until the whale population became decimated. Today, the International Whaling Commission, (IWC) set up in 1946 by the United Nations International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) regulates modern whaling and while recent scientific surveys suggest that humans and marine mammals can co–exist, there remains much to be done to ensure that the global whale population doesn’t become extinct.

Humpback......on its back. They average about 40 to 50 feet in length, and are the most active of the whales. They are most commonly known for their ability to "perform" with such antics as headstands, flipper slapping, and breaching – when a whale lunges out of the water and splashes back down.

A Humpback Spyhopping...... holding its head out of the water.

Give us a wave.....

.....a Humpback's flippers can be 14ft long.

Amazingly close to shore.

With two calves.

Showing their Tail Flukes....

.....Fluke patterns are like fingerprints. Whales can be individualy identified by them.

A very short quiet period....

The naturalists on board said that we may be lucky enough to see Right Whales on the trip as some had been spotted in the area. They are very rare and endangered. Only about 350 are believed to be in the Atlantic. If spotted, the boats are not allowed to approach closer to them than 500ft......but if one surfaces after a dive near to the boat....

....which wonderfully some of them did, blowing after a deep dive, the Captain keeps the boat stationary. The right whale is extremely endangered, even after years of protected status. Best population estimates are 300–350 in the North Atlantic. Full protection was granted in 1931 but despite over 50 years of protection, recovery has been questionable. Only in the past 15 years is there evidence of a population recovery in the Southern Hemisphere, and it is still not known if the Right Whale will survive at all in the Northern Hemisphere. Although not presently hunted, current conservation problems include collisions with ships, conflicts with fishing activities, habitat destruction, oil drilling, and possible competition from other whale species. The Right Whale may have received its name from whalers who thought that it was the "right" whale to kill because it was correct commercially – in past times oil came from whales – or because it was considered "proper" or "true" which meant typical of whales in general. They were easy targets, if you could ever call going out in small boats with harpoons and lances an easy business. Right Whales swim slowly and float when dead, which was important in those days. The exploitation of the Right Whale began in the Bay of Biscay in Spain by the 12th century and continued, especially in the North Atlantic, for many centuries. Despite being protected since the 1930s, the Right Whale is today the most endangered of all the great whales.

A Tail Fluke as it dives.

On the way back to port, more Finbacks....

....they came right along side...

....they were enormous...as big as the boat.

Baleen whales have two blowholes located on top of their heads. These are really muscular flaps that provide a seal preventing water from entering the whale's blowhole when they come to the surface for air. Some species of baleen whales have a splash guard for their blowholes providing extra protection.....

....which you can see here.

Into port after a fantastic and memorable morning watching these magnificent creatures in a natural environment. The Captain said that it had been one of the best days out for a long time. We had seen about 80 individual Whales and Calves including the privilege of spotting Right Whales.

It is extremely difficult to make accurate population counts of whales. This is because whales are now so rare and widely dispersed. Attempts have been made to estimate populations, directly from whale watching cruises, or indirectly using mark and recapturing methods. However, these different counting methods have major difficulties and since 1991 the International Whaling Commission (IWC) has ceased to produce population estimates because of doubts about their accuracy. For example, sightseeing whales is highly dependent on sea state and light levels, and the mark and recapture of individual whales is very difficult to do as whales can travel very long distances. Modern whaling is regulated by the International Whaling Commission and while the IWC members voted to impose an open-ended moratorium on commercial whaling, as Norway registered an objection to the moratorium, Norway was allowed to continue commercial hunting of whales and has done since 1993.In addition to Norway’s commercial whaling, IWC regulations allow for two further types of whaling: whaling for the purposes of scientific research, carried out by Japan and Iceland, and subsistence whaling in aboriginal communities, where a group has a culture and tradition of whaling. Countries which practice aboriginal subsistence whaling are Russia (Siberian groups), Denmark (Greenlandic Inuit), St Vincent and the Grenadines (one man) and the United States (Alaskan Inuit). Canadian Inuit also carry out whaling, though Canada is not a member of the IWC.