12/27/24 - Tuna Fishing: Whales and Alcids
The Friday after Christmas I got back out on the water with my friend, Captain John. He had been chasing winter bluefin tuna lately and he had a spot for me on his boat this time. I saw this as an opportunity to catch some maguro, spot some whales and maybe find some alcids. It turned out to be a good time as I accomplished that trifecta.
There was four of us on board and we left the dock at 6 a.m. There was a chill in the air. The wind was pretty much calm though, and once the sun rose high enough the air temperature was comfortable. The water was calm with minimal two-foot swells, at well-spaced intervals. On the way out, scoters began taking to the air from their night slumber to avoid our oncoming vessel. Gannets began their serial search for food. As the sight of land grew smaller, I started to see my first few target species: dovekies and razorbills. The calm water made it easier to spot the little dovekies on the water. When we arrived at our fishing destination, we were far enough away from land that there were no longer any sea ducks in the area. There were still a few common loons here and there, even one doing the eerie yodeling call. Now, almost any black and white bird in the area was almost certainly going to be an alcid, most likely a razorbill or dovekie.
Left, razorbill. Right, dovekie. © S. Weiss
Left, three sunrise dovekies. Right, late morning string of dovekies. © S. Weiss
I remember when, not too long ago, dovekies were hard to find unless one was on a pelagic trip. I saw my first one, a moribund bird on the Lavallette beach in 2007. It would be 13 years before I saw another one. In the past several years I have seen hundreds. I saw a couple dozen on this trip, including a group of 22 flying in the distance. Razorbills usually out number dovekies, but I only counted 4 this time. We also were far enough out to keep the regular gull species numbers low. Most of the gulls I saw out there were Bonaparte’s and black-legged kittiwakes. It was nice to see good numbers of kittiwakes back in the area.
The dovekie sightings alone would have made my day, but I had a surprising third alcid. As we were pulling away to relocate for fishing, I noticed a bird sitting on the water. I knew it was an alcid, but too big for a dovekie. It was facing away from me, and I did not think it looked like a razorbill. I quickly pulled out my camera and fired off some shots before we got too far away, and before the boat's wake would cause the bird to flush. Luckily, I took as many shots as I did. My shots started out unfocused and/or just of the back of the bird. My last two shots came out clear with a side view of my subject. It was a common murre; a prize find for New Jersey birders.
Common murre. © S. Weiss
I had left my phone in my car, so I was not able to keep a checklist of the birds I saw. I adapted by using my camera. I took photos of all the birds that I wanted to keep track of and used those to make incidental eBird checklists the next day. I did the same for all the whales that I saw. Almost immediately after reaching the fishing area in the morning, we started seeing humpback whales near and far. Two, three, even four blow spouts were spotted simultaneously. We could see heads poking out of the water, flippers waving above the surface and tail flukes rising high before disappearing into the depths. The whales were around the whole time we were fishing.
Left, two humpback whales early in morning. Right, two humpback whales later in day. © S. Weiss
Left, humpback whale passing boat. Right, two humpbacks. © S. Weiss
One with mouth open in right photo. Notice the tubercules on top of rostrum, and baleen strands hanging from top jaw. The tubercules are hair follicle bumps on the whale's head. The rostrum is the upper snout or jaw.
I sent some of my whale photos to Happywhale.com hoping for an identification match to at least one of them. Nearly a week later I did get a notification email. One of the whales was at least seven years old, first spotted in 2017 off of Massachusetts. Its sex and exact age are not yet known, but his name is Saucer. It joins the other six named humpback whales that I have spotted.
Saucer, the humpback whale. © S. Weiss
As for the fishing, we had not had a single fish show interest in our troll all day. It was afternoon and we were deciding just how much longer to keep trying before giving in and heading back. That is when we heard the sweet sound of one of the big reels start whizzing: fish on! I don’t know how long it actually took, but at least 45 minutes later we had a big bluefin tuna on board. It was close to 200 pounds. Thats a lot of tuna for four guys. That put the exclamation point on our day, and we headed back to the dock.
The other three guys were ecstatic about the tuna and entertained by the whale show. They were indifferent to the birds. I, however, enjoyed every part of the day.
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