Whale watching and Bird Watching reports from Cape Ann, Gloucester Massachusetts

	Week ending September 21, 2007 WOW! Whale sightings continue to be excellent - and finally the weather is cooperating! What great weather we are enjoying! We have had plenty of Humpbacks, Minkes and Fin Whales, as well as super pods of Atlantic White-sided Dolphins. Today, we saw Trident, one of our "adopted" Humpbacks.
	Week ending September 14, 2007 Great sightings continue! 19 Humpback Whales were having a blast flipper slapping ande other shenanigans out there! The CORE staff are having fun conducting valuable research with kids onboard, including plankton tows, salinity tests, etc. Everyone is welcome to participate.
	Week ending August 24, 2007 WOW! Whale sightings continue to be excellent! Yesterday, we had over a dozen Humpback Whales and a dozen Minke Whales as well! Throw in many Fin Whales, too, and you have a very exciting whale watch. When you consider all the feeding activity and breaching, it makes the experience a memory for a lifetime!
	Week ending August 17, 2007 Whale sightings continue to be excellent! Plenty of active Humpbacks, Fin Whales, Minkes, plus basking sharks and tuna. We have even seen two of the extremely rare North Atlantic Right Whales.
	Week ending July 27, 2007 We have had such an exciting week! "Large groups of Humpbacks performing every known activity while feeding; lob tailing, spy hopping, full breaches ... With Fin Whales, Basking Sharks, even Tuna amongst them" says CORE assistant director Lauren Noble.
	Week ending July 20, 2007 We are seeing big numbers of whales, dolphins and even some seabirds.
	Week ending July 13, 2007 They are back in full force
	Week ending July 6, 2007 Scattered by the storm
	Week ending 6/25/07 Lot's of Humpback Whales!
	Week ending 6/17/07 We are seeing mostly Humpback Whales with a smattering of Minke Whales and Fin Whales. The weather has been great, school is out, it's a great time to go whale watching!
	Week ending 6/10/07 Amazing! "One of the best seasons we have seen! Two years in a row of fabulous sightings!" says Sarah Podleski of the Center for Oceanic Research & Education. We've seen upwards of 20 whales on these trips this past week! Mostly we are seeing Humpback Whales, but also seeing great activity of feeding Fin Whales and Minke Whales.
	Week ending June 3, 2007 Amazing!
	Week ending May 27, 2007 Our whale-watching season has been "the bee's knees!" Our sightings have just been down right phenomenal, with numbers of 15-20 and even upwards of 40 whales in one day!
	Week ending May 20, 2007 Unbelievable - perhaps our lightest day this week was over 15 Humpback Whales! One day, over 30! Stupendous! These whales have been putting on a big show for us too. Very active feeding. Great weather capping great whale sightings. Can't get any better.
	Week ending May 13, 2007 We have had some amazing sightings! Very active whales, We've observed open mouthed feeding on the ample supply of food, exciting full breaching and mother/calf interaction. There have been many other marine mammals in addition to the local whales, such as harbor porpoises and harbor seals. Very exciting start to the season, to say the least!
	Week ending May 6, 2007 We are getting daily reports from our deep-sea fishing excursions that there are plenty of whales in the area. An abundance of sand eels and high levels of nutrients are the main food source for these whales. Copious amounts of both are a good sign for future sightings.
	2006
	Week ending October 1, 2006 Recent whale watches have been sighting predominantly juvenile Humpback Whales. Many have been feeding deeper in the water column on a type of plankton called Salps. The whales are coming up to the surface with their throats full and water filtering out the sides of their mouths!
	Week ending September 24, 2006 We hosted 2 *Trails and Sails* events, both Saturday and Sunday. We were quite fortunate that the weather held out enough for us to play host to so many wonderful people this weekend. The sightings were great with many Humpbacks, Fin Whales and a gigantic group of Atlantic White-sided Dolphins!
	Week ending September 17, 2006 This week was wonderful, yet again! We are sighting predominantly Humpback Whales along with lots of Bluefin Tuna and Herring. Several mom/calf pairs of Humpback Whales were sighted and we were lucky enough to get some great photos of the calves' flukes!
	Week ending September 10, 2006 This week was an interesting one, to say the least. On Sunday, Tropical Storm Ernesto passed by offshore and when we headed out Monday we had no idea what to expect. What a pleasant surprise when we found a large aggregation of 15 feeding Humpback Whales all together
	Week ending September 3, 2006 This summer has certainly been one to remember! Sand eels, the favorite prey fish on Stellwagen Bank, have been in great abundance all year. Lots of bait has translated to LOTS of whales and seabirds. Feeding has been almost non-stop and the Humpback Whales and Fin Whales are looking rather rotund lately!
	Week ending August 27, 2006 Sightings continue to be absolutely wonderful during the past week! We're still seeing feeding action on and off from the whales (and birds), and a mixture of many humpbacks, fin whales and minke whales. CORE staffer, Sarah Podleski, reports that "all of the whales are looking very rotund" from all of the heavy feeding! There have also been a few basking sharks in the area as well.
	Week ending Aug 20, 2006 "Phenomenal feeding activity!" was how CORE's Sarah Podleski described last week's trips! There were some trips with 20-30 Humpback Whales, 10-11 Fin Whales, a hundred or more Atlantic White-sided Dolphins and Minke Whales to boot!
	Week ending August 6, 2006 We're still seeing huge numbers of whales on nearly every trip - a mixture of Humpback Whales, Fin Whales and Minke Whales. We have also been seeing quite a few Harbor Seals and a number of Basking Sharks out there, as well!
	Week ending July 30, 2006 Simply fantastic! We're running out of adjectives to describe the wonderful trips we've been having! To make matters even nicer, the whales have been very close to shore - on some days only 8 miles from Gloucester Harbor! Just great!
	Week ending July 23, 2006 Simply AWESOME might explain it! Great, great whale watching last week. Some days we were seeing up to 20-25 Humpback Whales, several Fin Whales, Minke Whales and even some interesting other species like Harbor Seals, Ocean Sunfish, and Basking Sharks!
	Week ending July 16, 2006 Whales, whales everywhere! We've had some fantastic trips over the past few weeks and this week was no different! Anywhere from 10-15 Humpback Whales have been in our area off Gloucester very consistently.
	Week ending July 9, 2006 This past week was extremely varied as far as whale sightings. Some days we saw a wide variety of whales traveling or feeding, while other days involved huge numbers of humpbacks feeding wildly! Observed this week were quite a few Northern Right Whales, Fin Whales, many Minke Whales and a large number of Humpback Whales.
	Week ending July 2, 2006 Best Whale Watching Since 1988! says Chief Scientist, Lisa Fox, Director of CORE Yet another great week of watching whales! Within 12 miles of our docks, there have been several Humpback Whales, Fin Whales and many Minke Whales all actively feeding. As a HUGE bonus, our passengers were treated to some very rare Northern Right Whale sightings
	Week ending June 25, 2006 We have been seeing good numbers of many Humphack Whales, Fin Whales and Minke Whales and they are so actively feeding that it is a great show! All this, because of the tiny Sand eels that are so abundant, the sea seems to be alive!
	Week ending June 18, 2006 Well, well, well! So Fabulous! Where do we start? How about a nice mixture of Fin Whales, Minke Whales and Humpback Whales? How about seeing them all feeding in one area at the very same time? How about seeing the whales feeding with their mouths wide open on the surface? And throw in some very cute whale calves playing ....
	Week ending June 11, 2006 After more rain storms finally passed our way (we had nearly two full weeks of cancellations!) the news is wonderful! Lots of life to report off of Gloucester! Humpback Whales, Fin Whales and Minke Whales have been spotted very consistently. The stars of the sea have been the Humpback Whales who have been feeding very heavily on plentiful sand eels.
	Week ending May 21, 2006 We have seen many, many whales to date including several adult Humpback Whales, some with calves, Fin Whales, Minke Whales, Atlantic White-sided Dolphins and many, many, Harbor Porpoise.
	Week ending May 7th, 2006 Whale watching has begun! We started our season off with a bang this weekend. 8 very active Humpbacks Whales gave us a great show on Saturday afternoon at Stellwagen Bank. We also saw 5 Fin Whales, 2 Minke Whales, and incredible 4 North Atlantic Right Whales!
	2005
	Week ending October 2, 2005 Well, the summer season is winding down, but the Humpback Whales don't seem to know! Another fantastic week of whale watching to report. The Humpback Whales have definitely been the stars of the sea for us recently - just the most amazing behaviors and SO close to shore! We've done several whale watches just 5 miles off of Gloucester and some just a stone's throw from Swampscott and Salem! Really incredible.
	Week ending September 25, 2005 Fall is in the air! Whales are feeding heavily in preparation for their upcoming migration and they are VERY close to Gloucester, which makes for a great combination! We've been seeing mostly Humpback Whales with some sightings of Fin Whales and Minke Whales to round things out nicely!
	Week ending September 18, 2005 "GOOD STUFF!" as we heard one of our passengers remark this last week! Some incredible whale sightings, nice and close to Gloucester, to boot! Several Humpback Whales and Fin Whales have been around this last week - as well as sightings of Atlantic White-sided Dolphins and Harbor Porpoises!
	Week ending September 11, 2005 Beautiful weather and beautiful whales make for a perfect combination! What a lovely, lovely week. Fall is in the air and the humpback whales are feeding heavily in preparation for their upcoming migration. We observed several juvenile humpback whales in the area - identified Hat Trick and Sasquatch most recently.
	Week ending August 21, 2005 This is getting ridiculous! I'm running out of words to describe how incredible these trips are! Nice problem! : )
	Week ending August 7, 2005 Well, this certainly seems to be our year for whale watching! Great whale watching trip followed by great whale watching trip! This week we had more Humpback Whales and Fin Whales in the area North and East of Gloucester called Jeffrey's Ledge. Humpback whales sighted included Newton, Flask, Hornbill, Ember and Freckles.
	Week ending July 31, 2005 Another wonderful week of whale watching! More Northern Right Whales (the most endangered whale species in the world), Fin Whales, a few Humpback Whales and the smallest of baleen whales, Minke Whales were seen on our whale watching trips!
	Week ending July 24, 2005 OK. Here we go again! Where do we begin with such awesome sightings?! Let's start with the MOST spectacular of spectacular whale sightings last week. We saw Six Northern Right Whales On Sunday! 6 Right Whales is about 2% of their whole population! Imagine! Can you believe a Northern Right Whale mother and calf breaching over and over and over? Honestly, the most incredible behavioral display from this rotund, little whale!
	Week ending July 17, 2005 WOWWWWEEEEE! What a whale watching week. Holy COW!! Where do we begin?! Let's see...We'll start with a group of 7 Fin Whales lunge feeding on krill to start (Spectacular!). We'll round it off with several Humpback Whales, Minke Whales, Atlantic White-sided Dolphins and a number of Sei Whales! Our whale watching trips have simply been unbelievable! Really amazing sightings out there!
	Week ending July 10, 2005 Some excellent surprises were in store for us on Friday afternoon - a rainy, rocky day - but well worth it as we observed on our whale watching trip three Northern Right Whales, the most endangered whale in the world.
	Week ending July 3, 2005 One word to describe our recent trips? Incredible! Really, really a great week. Wonderful weather and a wonderful week of seeing some of our old Humpback Whale friends! We also saw Fin Whales and Minke Whales, but the stars this week were definitely the Humpback Whales.
	Week ending June 26, 2005 What a great week! Great weather and great whales! A combination we always like to report about our whale watching trips! There were many whale watching trips where we observed up to 8 (or more) Humpback Whales, several Fin Whales and Minke Whales.
	Week ending June 19, 2005 Another great week for whales and birds! We had several great sightings last week with adult humpback whales only about 15 miles offshore.
	Week ending June 12, 2005 WOW! June has brought many surprises for us. Notably, the weather! It was downright HOT HOT HOT this week! And, whale sightings have been just getting better and better with every passing day. We had a variety of Humpback Whales, Fin Whales (including a mother and calf pair), Minke Whales and Atlantic White-sided Dolphins
	Week ending June 5, 2005 Summer has arrived! Not technically, but what a BEAUTIFUL whale watching week this was! Gorgeous weather and really nice whale sightings to boot! We had a variety of Humpback Whales, Fin Whales, Minke Whales and even a pod of 60-70 Atlantic White-sided Dolphins!
	Week ending May 29, 2005 Yet another week of dicey weather - a big Nor'Easter came through and really stirred things up for us! However, the weekend shaped up nicely and our trips were quite successful. We saw a nice mixture of Humpback Whales, Fin Whales, Minke Whales and Harbor Porpoises!
	Week ending May 22, 2005 Mother Nature has had alternate plans for us this May! We've had such weather! However, the days we've been able to get out there have been successful. This past week we've seen Humpback Whales, Fin Whales, Minke Whales and Harbor Porpoises!
	Week ending May 15, 2005 Surprises are almost always right around the corner when it comes to whales! If there's one thing we know about wild animals, it's that they are completely unpredictable! With area students on Thursday, just five miles from Gloucester, a Humpback mother and calf pair were a VERY welcome sight!
	2004
	Week ending October 3, 2004 We cancelled most of the trips to start our week, with the remnants of hurricane Jeanne going by our coast. The end of the week turned up some nice surprises, however! On Saturday we observed 3 Humpback Whales - two of them were identified as Eden and Polevault.
	Week ending September 26, 2004 WOW! What a great week! Fantastic weather and great whale sightings to boot! We saw many Humpback Whales and Fin Whales throughout the week.
	Week ending September 19, 2004 This week we had a few different Humpback Whales around - Beanie, Drizzle and a juvenile that we could not identify that was observed on a two days during the week.
	Week ending September 12, 2004 Consistent whale watching sightings of Humpback Whales and Fin Whales were the whale watching highlight this past week.
	Week ending September 5, 2004 We have been seeing lots of adult Fin Whales, a few smaller Humpback Whales including Beanie and Kappa.
	Week ending August 29, 2004 Among other very nice sightings this week, we had a very unusual sighting of Risso's Dolphins to start us off! Incredible!
	Week ending August 22, 2004 A few Humpback Whales have been around during this past week! Individual Humpback Whales identified include Geometry, Chimney
	Week ending August 15,2004 Yet another week of unpredictable and exciting sightings. We saw anything from a lunge feeding Minke Whale to another North Atlantic Right Whale on Saturday
	Week ending August 8,2004 Another mixed bag this week to keep us on our toes! Fin Whales, Minke Whales, Atlantic White-sided Dolphins and even a couple visits from Humpback Whales
	Week ending August 1,2004 Another week of surprises and changes this past week! Fin Whales and Minke Whales were the most often sighted species again
	Week ending July 25, 2004 What to say...A week of ups and downs whale- and weather-wise. Fog was fairly prevalent and caused us to cancel quite a few of our trips this week.
	Week July 18, 2004 This week belonged to the Fin Whales and Minke Whales! Less than ideal weather
	Week ending July 11, 2004 A mixed bag again this week - with sightings of a little bit of everything! We saw Fin Whales, Minke Whales, Atlantic White-sided Dolphins, Basking Sharks, a couple Harbor Seals and Right Whales!
	Week ending July 4, 2004 A mixed bag for this particular week - with sightings of a little bit of everything! We saw Fin Whales, Humpback Whales, Minke Whales, Atlantic White-sided Dolphins, Basking Sharks, Ocean Sunfish
	Week ending 6/27/04 Fin Whales, Minke Whales and pods of Atlantic White-sided Dolphins were observed in the area this past week.
	Week ending 6/20/04 Fin Whales and the Basking Sharks were the order of the day this week!! We also observed a couple Minke Whales and two pods of Atlantic White-sided Dolphins
	Week ending 6/13/2004 The past week has been the week of the Fin Whales and Atlantic White-sided Dolphins! On nearly all of our whale watching trips during the week, we observed at least one pod of White-sided Dolphins
	Week ending 5/30 and 6/6/04 The past 2 weeks have featured varied sightings, including several sightings, Fin Whales, Minke Whales, and a few Humpbacks.
	Week ending 5/23/04 This past week featured varied sightings, including a new Humpback Whale mother & calf, Double-O and her brand new calf! We also observed several Fin Whales, Minke Whales and a group of 20-30 Atlantic White-sided Dolphins.
	Week ending 5/16/04 Whales have been much closer to shore than earlier this season. We had a fun trip on Friday with Fox 25 TV meteorologist Cindy Fitzgibbon
	Week ending 5/2/04 Our opening weekend was wonderful! Actually beyond anyone's expectations. We traveled to the southeast corner of Stellwagen Bank to find 24 Humpback Whales (!), and even a Northern Right Whale.


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