7/8/24 - Minke Whale

     On Monday I joined my friend, Captain John, on another tuna fishing trip.  The previous week we went out to the Hudson Canyon and did well with bluefin tuna.  This time we only went out about 40 - 50 miles to target yellowfin tuna.  The captain had good intelligence that the tuna bite was hot there the day before.  We left the dock at 4 a.m., but it took us longer than expected to reach our destination due to the thick fog.  It was a little dicey navigating through Barnegat Inlet out to the open ocean, but Captain John handled it well.  The foggy conditions lifted by the time we made it to the fishing grounds.  Apparently, others had similar reports as there were dozens of boats in the area.

We fished the area into the afternoon but could not put a fish in the boat.  We saw only a handful of fish caught among all the vessels out on the water.  Despite the captain’s efforts, it turned into one of those “you should have been here yesterday” days.  Marine life in the area was better than on our previous trip which made the lack of tuna even more perplexing to us.  There were many Wilson’s storm-petrels around feeding in their usual style, pattering and pecking about the water surface.  The boat captains look for the storm-petrels when trying to locate tuna schools.  That is why they call them tuna chicks.  Unfortunately, this day they likely were eating mostly tiny prey, such as krill or fish eggs.  They certainly were not feeding on scraps left over from marauding tuna.

Foraging flock of Wilson's storm-petrels.  © S. Weiss

I expected to see shearwaters and maybe a jaeger or two with all the boats around, some tossing bait into the water.  However, I only had a few individual sittings of great and Cory’s shearwaters, and no jaegers.  I scanned the masses of storm-petrels hoping for a band-rumped or Leach’s, but I could not make any of the Wilson’s into one of its longer winged and shorter legged cousins.  On our journey back later in the day we passed several loggerhead sea turtles swimming near the surface.

Left, great shearwater.  Right, Cory's shearwater.  © S. Weiss

Loggerhead sea turtle.  © S. Weiss

I had better luck with cetaceans than with fish or birds.  Either several large pods, or one repeating large pod, of common dolphins kept us somewhat entertained.  We had one humpback whale swim near the boat.  I was able to get some photos of it as it did a partial tail raise before making a deep dive.  I did not see it resurface anywhere near us.  I submitted some of my photos to Happywhale.com with hopes that they might be able to identify the individual.  During the day I did see some other humpbacks blow and surface, but they were way off in the distance.  I heard another boat captain say on the radio that he had a fin whale around though I never had eyes on one myself.

Humpback whale deep diving.  © S. Weiss

Notice the hump on the back where the dorsal fin is located.  Compared to a fin or minke whale, this dorsal fin is shorter and blunter in shape.

I noticed in the afternoon a cetacean swimming around the area but could not get a positive identification of it.  Captain John called out a whale to me before he realized I had already began photographing it.  I said if it’s a whale, it’s a small one.  I never saw it raise its tail or head out of the water, nor did I notice it produce an identifiable blow spout.  I couldn’t see its body below the surface for other noticeable features.  Its dorsal fin was too pointed and narrow for a pilot whale.  It was not blunt enough to be a humpback whale.  The creature was not enormous but much larger than a dolphin.  I saw that it had two blow holes on one of its passes and knew then for sure it wasn’t a dolphin.  Dolphins have only a single blow hole.  Its body, from the blow holes to the dorsal fin was sleek and straight, much like a fin whale but it was too small.  I briefly wondered if maybe it was a juvenile fin whale.  I am by no means a whale expert, but I really felt that a young whale would still be in the company of its mother.  There were no adult fin whales that I could see near this animal.

Minke whale.  © S. Weiss

Notice the dorsal fin on this whale compared to the humpback whale above.  This fin is taller, pointier and more sickle shaped.  Also, notice the shorter distance between the whale's blow holes and its dorsal fin in the photo on the left.  Compare this to the fin whale below.

Minke whale.  © S. Weiss

It wasn’t until later that night while I was going through my photos that I finally made the identification.  It was a common minke whale.   This was my first minke.  They are not uncommon in New Jersey waters, yet it took me quite a while of whale spotting to finally see one.  Minkes look like mini versions of fin whales.  The former reach sizes of about 35 feet, while the latter reach sizes of over 75 feet.  Also, minkes are similar looking to, but smaller than, the rarer Bryde’s and Sei’s whales.  Minkes are not as acrobatic and entertaining as are humpbacks.  They do not often breach, and rarely raise their tails.  Now knowing that they don’t regularly show more of themselves, I am satisfied with the photos I obtained.

Fin whale.  © S. Weiss

Compare the size difference between this whale and the minke whale above.  The fin whale is the second largest animal on the planet, behind the blue whale.  The minke whale is the smallest of this family of whales.

It would have been nice to come home with some fresh tuna, but I don’t feel so cheated with my newest whale sighting.

*****

A humpback whale I spotted back on September 2, 2023, during a fishing trip near the Hudson Canyon has been identified on Happywhale as Northstar.  Northstar was first encountered in Massachusetts Bay on July 30, 2014.  Northstar’s age and gender are unknown.

Northstar, the humpback whale.  © S. Weiss