12/8/2025 - Another Named Humpback Whale
Several weeks ago, I went on a 12-hour pelagic trip out of Cape May, NJ. I had been looking forward to getting out on the water specifically to look for marine life instead of fishing and incidentally noting the wildlife. It was mid-November and while I was hoping for many different marine species, realistically I knew that there likely would not be as much as I hoped. November is a ‘tweener month. It was getting late for many of the summer species to still be around and yet a little too early for many of the winter species to have arrived.
I knew the storm-petrels and most of the large shearwaters had already departed. It was a little early for our winter alcids to be around, but razorbills could start filtering in at any time. Many of our terns had vacated, but Bonaparte’s gulls were already around and maybe so would some black-legged kittiwakes. Being that was only a 12-hour trip, I knew we would not get out far enough to the deep waters of the continental shelf. We might make it out far enough to get into range of northern fulmars. Some whales were also migrating out of the area, but we still had chances to see humpbacks, fin and Minkes. If we were lucky, we might encounter a “non-expecting” North Atlantic right whale. Right whales head to the coasts of Georgia and northern Florida to give birth to their calves between December and February.
The day started off well for cetacean seekers. We were barely out of the inlet when we came upon Tamanend’s dolphins. Formerly called bottlenose dolphins, these inshore dolphins shared that name with the offshore bottlenose dolphins. Now they are two separate species, the Tamanend’s (Tursiops erebennus) are the smaller inshore mammals, and the common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) are the larger offshore ones. Then not too far out of the inlet (land still clearly visible) we had two encounters with humpback whales. After spending some time observing the whales we began our trek offshore.
We made it out as far as about 40-45 miles. This should have been far enough to encounter any northern fulmars, but not on this trip. Along the way out we picked up several bird species. Aside from the local gulls, we had many Bonaparte’s gulls, and a few black-legged kittiwakes. There were many sea ducks, such as all three of the scoters (surf, black and white-winged), long-tailed ducks, common eiders to recall some. Northern gannets were plentiful, as were red-throated and common loons. It was a very good day for Manx shearwaters as we tallied nearly four dozen of these small shearwaters. We also had one great shearwater approach the vessel. But most surprising was the number of passerines we had fly around the boat miles offshore. Dark-eyed junco, northern flicker, golden-crowned kinglet, song sparrow, yellow-rumped warbler and red-winged blackbird padded our pelagic lists.
The only whales we encountered for the day were humpback whales. After the two early whales near shore, we did not spot another until the afternoon. We observed this one for a while and I was able to get good photographs of its flukes during one of its dives. Tail fluke patterns are unique to each humpback whale, just like our fingerprints. I sent my better photographs of all three whales to Happywhale, a research organization that maintains a catalog of cetaceans, particularly humpback whales. Happywhale works with and shares its data with other whale research organizations. At Happywhale.com, contributors like me can follow individual whales. All the whale sightings are logged and, depending on how many times an individual has been sighted and reported, I can see where the whale has been over the history of its sightings. A return on the third whale showed that it was new to the Happywhale database, but matched an individual known as Diver in the Gulf of Maine Humpback Whale Catalog. Diver has only one previous sighting. It was last recorded in the Gulf of Maine nearly 20 years ago. There currently is no other vital information on Diver, such as its gender or offspring, other than it being at least 20 years old.
Through my submissions to Happywhale I have encountered 18 known humpback whale individuals. All of them have one or several catalog identification numbers (each organization has its own identification numbering system). Ten of these whales, including Diver, have names in the North Atlantic Humpback Whale Catalog. The oldest humpback individual I have encountered, based upon its first sighting, is Nile. Nile was first recorded in the Gulf of Maine in 2003. I saw Nile this past August at Stellwagen Bank off of Massachusetts, making her at least 22 years old. She is known to have had at least three calves. The oldest whale I have encountered is a right whale that is now at least 25 years old, according to information in the North Atlantic Right Whale Catalog. While on another Cape May pelagic in March of 2021, we encountered Binary. Her first recorded sighting was in 2000 in the Bay of Fundy.
Each pelagic trip is a new adventure, and I can’t wait for the next one.
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