Whale Watching at Cape Cod
Humpback Whale feeding on small fish and plankton.
By Young Naturalist C – This summer I went on vacation to Cape Cod with my family and we decided to go on a Whale Watch on the Portuguese Princess. We started by waiting 20 minutes for the boat to take off towards the ocean. After a 1/2 hour boat ride we finally started seeing the whales and the on board educator was pointing out the whales using the clock system (“Whales at 9 o’clock”). We approached slowly as a few whales were feeding on small fish and plankton.
This is the other boat that was approaching the Humpback Whales.
We drifted towards a few more whales as they were spouting (breathing through blow holes) and logging (resting). We saw the whale’s fluking their tails out of the water on many occasions they would disappear underwater. I was happy that they had spent more time on the waters surface than they were underwater. Towards the end of the boat ride we did have one whale that breached (jumped) out of the water.
The on board educator told us about the different ways to identify the different whales. Salt was one of the Humpback Whale that has been visiting this area for many years. They named her Salt for the distinctive marks located on her dorsal fin and she has produced 10 calves over the many years that they have been following her.
The Humpback Whale on the left is named Salt.
My family had a wonderful vacation and I think that everyone should do a Whale Watch. We ended up finding around 7 different Humpbacked Whales the 1 1/2 hours that we were out in the ocean. We finally headed back to Provincetown which is where we started our adventure. I also suggest that anyone who heads out on a Whale Watch take some ginger for motion sickness but I didn’t like the taste of the candy ginger that I had.
This guest post was written and photographed by Young Naturalist C with a little help from Tom.
Mon@rch's Nature Blog 
Young Naturalist C – This is such a wonderful post and I am sooo glad that I was able to talk you into doing this! I only wish one of these days that I have a chance to get out and do a whale watch! I probably should have gone on the watch when I was down in Cape Cod for my conference (but not enough time)! Great job and very proud of you! (I also should highfive your sister who also helped you with this!)
2 September 2007 at 9:44 am
What a great post Young Naturalist C! Looks like Mon@rch is helping mold young naturalists into naturalist-bloggers too. Great description of a whale watch. I’ve been whale watching at Cape Cod and found the experience exhilarating. I agree that everyone should do a whale watch. Keep blogging!
2 September 2007 at 9:51 am
Young naturalist C– It looks like you and your family had a great adventure out there on the sea watching the whales. How lucky that you got to see so many of them, and to see one breach. Wow. That must have been an amazing sight.
2 September 2007 at 11:15 am
:O That is an emoticon of my mouth agape… What a great photo! I’m envious!
2 September 2007 at 3:44 pm
Great post C and wonderful photos! Your post makes me want to go on a whale-watch!
Ginger candy is hard to get used to at first, but I like it now. You may like it eventually!
2 September 2007 at 8:29 pm
Congratulations, C! Wonderful, wonderful post. I am jealous of your views of whales. Makes me want to take a cruise somewhere and watch them. You need to have your own blog – I’d visit.
2 September 2007 at 11:23 pm
Great post ‘C’. What a wonderful experience to see whales in their natural setting rather than at seaworld.
One of these days I would like to do the same.
3 September 2007 at 9:20 am
Wow, great post, and shots – I gotta get out there and watch some whales come next migration season around here!
3 September 2007 at 10:52 am
Must have been a blast, great post and image young Nat C!
3 September 2007 at 12:54 pm
What a great post “C.” Thanks for sharing your fantastic vacation memories and photos with us.
3 September 2007 at 7:37 pm
I’ve never went whale watching-that is something I must do-Very Cool!
3 September 2007 at 8:19 pm
@ Barb – it will probably be a while till they start blogging but I will continue to sucker them into helping with my site! Or I wouldn’t have anything to blog about!
@ Moe – she has been becoming a wonderful photographer!!
@ Mary – hope she continues to help me with this site for a while!
Thanks everyone and I agree she did such a wonderful job with this!
3 September 2007 at 8:22 pm
Wonderful post on your whale watching trip. I have a friend who works with “Allied Whale” and part of her job is matching whale flukes. It’s always exciting when they find a match!
I know what you mean about the ginger! ;D
3 September 2007 at 10:15 pm
I’ve always wanted to do this, but have never managed. Definitely something to put on the list. So, how many pelagic birds did you see?
And how is everyone getting those buddy icons on their posts?
4 September 2007 at 9:48 am
Great post – makes me want to go to Cape Cod – the shot entitled
“The Humpback Whale on the left is named Salt.”
is great!
thanks
David
4 September 2007 at 12:09 pm
Nice job C. I have never been and these shots are so great it felt like being there. I had heard that until your up and close you have no idea of the size of whales. Boy am I jealous or what? Beautiful job!
4 September 2007 at 4:06 pm
@ Marg – That sounds like such an awesome job! Sign me up!
@ Marty – I will have to ask her how many she saw! I bet their were a few out their! BTW: It’s a wordpress thing!
@ David – thanks
@ aullori – She was telling me how large they were! Maybe one day I can get to see them!
4 September 2007 at 8:01 pm
Spectacular, thank you!
5 September 2007 at 8:47 am
You are so very lucky to witness these wonderful creatures. nita
8 September 2007 at 4:30 pm
Tom – I guess it’s a WordPress.com thing then – I have a WordPress.org account but no icon to match. And since I don’t blog through WordPress.com, I’ll assume I’m SOL… oh well.
12 September 2007 at 6:36 pm
Let’s see if this works… (’cause I only had 101 more pressing matters to attend to that I’m avoiding).
12 September 2007 at 6:59 pm
a wonderful experience. we finally went on a WW last year, great time!
30 April 2008 at 3:30 pm