1999 Research Trip Report
This year, CORE had four trips planned - two full day fundraiser trips, an overnight trip and our famous three day canyons trip to see sperm whales.
The first, a full day trip aboard the Yankee Capts (out of Gloucester, MA) was fantastic. We started the day heading toward the southernmost end of Stellwagen Bank and spent the full day traversing the entirety of the Bank. With beautiful weather and calm seas, we saw observed over 70 humpbacks, 11 fin whales and 8 minke whales. Highlights included sightings of humpbacks whales named Salt, Pepper, Colt, Fan, Echo, Ase & Tornado, four mother/calf pairs, observations of splashing activity, hundreds of birds and a basking shark! It was a huge success.
The next trip, a three-day excursion aboard the Yankee Capts, took us over a hundred miles offshore to see sperm whales and other interesting deep water animals. Though we had a rough start - and rough was the word, the trip turned out to be one of our best yet. The first morning was spent in the fog heading south just off of Cape Cod toward the first canyon called Hydrographer’s. We had about a three to six foot choppy sea on top of a four to eight foot swell. Certainly not the ideal sighting conditions we have enjoyed on most of these three day excursions! We ended the day with several sightings of ocean sunfish and Portuguese man o’ war, a mystery shark, a couple fin whales, one possible sperm whale and two possible beaked whales. Not the most exciting day for most! The next morning, with the seas and the memory of our first day behind us, we proceeded offshore with renewed optimism. It wasn’t long until we had sighted several fin whales and a pod of Risso’s dolphins in the deep water of Welker’s Canyon. Suddenly, everyone was feeling enthusiastic! More and more fin whales were sighted through the morning, and then our first official sperm whale! An awesome sight, as we saw it blow and then descend with an arch and a huge tail. This second day ensued with many sightings of bottlenose dolphins and pilot whales, five more sperm whales, more fin whales, a friendly loggerhead turtle (that spent almost 20 minutes looking at us!) and a spectacular sunset sighting of about 150 common and striped dolphins in a mixed pod. That second night we proceeded toward inshore waters again, as the wind threatened to build the seas once more. By morning, we fortunately found ourselves just 70 miles from home with an eight to ten foot sea pressing us along. A couple of our passengers had never seen humpbacks, so we tried our best to find some on the way home to complete their experience. With winds whipping at 30 knots and more, our ride home took us right up the coast of Cape Cod. We were able to locate 13 humpbacks and a fin whale on this final day, The humpbacks were all splashing - breaching, flipper slapping, tail-lobbing - every kind of surface active behavior imaginable! Needless to say our passengers were very satisfied! Overall, this trip was very impressive with 8 confirmed cetacean species, a turtle, Portuguese man-o’-war, ocean sunfish, tuna and an unknown shark species. It was also impressive because our passengers were such troopers! We truly appreciate their great attitudes and their spirit of optimism on this trip! We hope you will all come back!
Our third research trip, an overnight trip aboard the Yankee Capts was amazing. Our travels took us to the Great South Channel, off Nantucket Island. Despite conditions of horrendous fog, we were able to locate 27 humpbacks, 2 fin whales, 9 minke whales and 20-25 Atlantic white-sided dolphins! Just amazing!
We want to extend a special thanks to Captain Greg Mercurio and the crew of the Yankee Capts for their generosity and ability on these trips. We sincerely appreciate it.
Alas, our final trip, a full-day fundraiser out of Rye, NH aboard the Atlantic Queen II, was cancelled due to high seas. Thanks to Captain Brad Cook for trying this trip again and again!