Latest Trips
By: A. H. Kopelman, Ph.D.
| 2020 Whale Watch Naturalist's Blog |
Saturday July 18, 2020 |
| 4 humpback whales and massive schools of Atlantic menhaden (bunker). Great way to start the season!
The Viking Fleet and CRESLI began our 24th consecutive season of whale watching trips just where we left off, i.e., finding whales. We had reports of whales that morning (seen from shore by our naturalist, Dr. Artie Kopelman, and heard in the fog aboard the Viking Starship that morning by the intrepid Viking Fleet mate, Joey Ferguson). We also had reports of dolphins west of town. Out we headed and within a short while we were past Montauk Light looking for cetaceans (whales, dolphins, porpoises). Shortly thereafter a fog bank rolled in and we continued on and listened for blows. Eventually the fog lifted and we found ourselves in the midst of many massive schools of bunker. Here we encountered feeding humpback whales. Two juveniles were photographed and we had brief glimpses of 2 others.
A wonderful start to the 2020 season.
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Saturday July 25, 2020
3 humpback whales, 1 minke whale and more
Our 2nd trip of the 2020 season didn't let us down. We had reports of whales from several places and began our trip with a great plan. With excellent visibility and conditions, we found our first whale within 40 minutes from passing Montauk Light, a humpback. This whale was busy searching for food 100' down and would rise to the surface after a few minutes, blow 5-6 times and dive. We stayed with the whale until it tail slapped and we decided to head further. We headed ENE towards and found our 2nd whale about 1 hour later. We'd seen it from ~1.5 miles away and when we got near the area, it popped up just under our bowsprit. Luckily we were almost at idle speed. A minke and a thrird humpback joined us shortly thereafter. This last whale had significant Orca raking scars on its dorsal fin and flukes. We encountered other species duringour travels including 3 Ocean Sunfish, 1 jumping White Marlin, about 40 Wilson's Storm Peterels, and about 40 Great Shearwaters
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Saturday August 01, 2020
4 humpback whales - 18 and 10 consecutive breaches at the end of our trip! Nice way to end the afternoon.
Our 3rd trip of the 2020 season was one for the books. Again, we had reports of whales from several places and began our trip with a great plan to survey an area not far from Gurney's. Excellent visibility and conditions allowed us to see blows from really far. Our first stop was ~6nm (nautical miles) south of the Lighthouse, where we had seen blows from about 1.5 nm away. Those whales were gone, so we headed west (2 nm) and found the first of 2 whales, one seen on the 7/18/2020 trip (MTK.2020.07.18-01). Our 2nd whale was one we had seen on the 7/25/2020 trip (MTK.2020.07.25-02). We also encountered an aggregation of about 100 Western North Atlantic Northern Migratory Coastal Stock (AKA inshore) bottlenose dolphins.
We had the priviledge of staying with these whales for over 2 hours, watching them dive for food at the sea floor, rising up 3-7 minutes later and resuming their dives. Both whales we juveniles and both had signs of previous entanglements. One whale had a tuna lure hooked into the left splashguard region (side of the blow hole). We were ready to leave and the whales began breaching simultaneously, each one on each side of the vessel. We stayed with MTK.2020.07.25-02 and it breached 18 times in 8 minutes, while MTK.2020.07.18-01 breached 10 times. Wow! The tubercles on the leading edge of a humpback's long pectoral flippers provide hydrodynamic lift and allow these whales to rise through the water column at steep angles without stalling, hence reducing the energy needed to breach.
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Saturday August 08, 2020
4 humpback whales - and 2 minkes.
Within 30 minutes of passing Montauk Lighthouse and within 10 minutes of the crew “on-station” to look in earnest for whales, we saw our first blows. Our 1st humpback was one we had seen last week as well about 8 nm (nautical miles) to the SSW and only about 4 nm from Montauk Lighthouse. This was the first of our 4 humpbacks and 2 minke whales of the day. Our 2nd humpback was 2 miles away at first and joined the other whale in feeding at depth on bunker. We saw massive bunker pods at the surface, but they were only the upper boundaries of giant 80’ thick plumes of bunker. Our minke whales joined in briefly. A while later, several miles away, we found our last 2 humpbacks
Bird counts thanks to David Chernack
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Wednesday August 12, 2020
3 Humpbacks and about 300 NW Atlantic Norther Migratory Common Bottlenose dolphins
WOW what a trip!
We had reports of whales around they Midway Buoy and within an hour we found out fist whale, a humpback we hadn’t seen before. A short while after staying with this whale, we came upon our first groups of NW Atlantic Norther Migratory (AKA “In-shore”) Common Bottlenose dolphins. At least 3 groups interacting and seemingly driving massive groups of prey. The groups dolphins would work together, with some driving forward and others turning to produce vortex-like field which formed a large circular slick. The dolphins would converge and chaos would occur. Our second groups of dolphins, over 180 of them joined in the fray. Were they feeding? We never saw them with prey in their mouths? We they mating? This we did see. So about 300 dolphins did this for nearly 2 hours.
Then we found our second humpback, another new one for us. It was breaching, followed by the typical flipper slapping. 20 minutes and a total of 18 breaches, interspersed with flipper slapping bouts. We had to head back to the dock and passed another humpback on the way in but couldn’t stop. Well we hope to see it again.
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Wednesday August 19, 2020
Humpbacks and more Common Bottlenose dolphins
A special day for many reasons
As usual, we were headed to where we seen whales on our last trip. We were lucky enough to encounter a very special whale, Nile’s 2016 calf.
Three weeks ago this 4 year-old calf was found severely entangled in 3900 pounds of cable and line about 10 miles out of New York Harbor. He had just enough slack to allow him to surface in breath. It took the disentanglement teams three days to get him out. Our sighting of this juvenile whale with the first since he was disentangled. The disentanglement was a joint effort of many institutions, they’ve been notified of our sighting and are elated! He is scarred severely but is feeding and seems to be moving quite well we have our fingers crossed. By the way, we also saw him in 2018. Read about the disentanglement here
Other humpback whales and minke whales were seen, but only three humpbacks were photographed on this trip including NYC0085 (also seen last year) and a new whale we call MTK.2020.08.19-04.
As in last trip, we also encountered inshore bottlenose dolphins, but this time in small groups. Maybe a total of 120 that were working to catch prey and we saw mating too. It was a special day and we hope for the best for Nile’s 2016 calf.
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Saturday August 22, 2020
5 Humpbacks and about 60 Common Bottlenose dolphins
Today's trip couldn't have started out better, with a humpback whale in Block Island Sound before we even made it to the ocean! This was a small humpback, about 24 feet (7.3 meters), probably less than 1 year old, by itself about 1 nautical mile NNW of Montauk Point. We stayed with this whale for a short while and then headed out to find others.
It wasn't long before we found Nile’s 2016 calf again. We stayed with this 4 year old malefor some time and were able to get additional photos documenting his injuries. As we did a few days ago, we shared these photos with the Center for Coastal Studies Animal Entanglement Response (MAER) personnel and others and are glad to hear that his wounds are healing well.
4 other humpback whales and 1 minke whale were seen. As in last trip, we also encountered inshore bottlenose dolphins, but this time in even smaller groups.
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2019-2020 CRESLI Seal Walks at Cupsogue Beach are finished for 2020
Over 24,700 seal encounters at Cupsogue since 2006.
Join us to observe, photograph, and learn about our Long Island's seals.
CRESLI seal walks will take place between November and May. Please note that weather will play a significant role in determining the seal walk schedule. Please call CRESLI at (631) 319-6003 for schedule changes and cancellations. The walks are approximately 1.2 miles round trip and take about 1 to 1.5 hours. These walks are suitable for children.
Please be prepared for the weather, i.e., wear warm clothing in layers. Hats, gloves, warm waterproof shoes are recommended, as are cameras and binoculars. Check the weather for Westhampton Beach and assume that the winds will produce wind chill. It’s better to be a more-on, than a less-on, i.e., having more layers than you need is the right thing.
We at CRESLI regret to announce that out of an abundance of caution and prudence, all CRESLI seal walks will be canceled. All folks with reservations will be contacted, all deposits will be refunded. Stay well, stay healthy, help each other and we will get through this.
2019-2020 SEAL SIGHTINGS AT CUPSOGUE
| Date | Status | Type of trip |
| Saturday, November 23, 2019 | 5 Harbor seals swimming
| SEAL MONITORING SESSION |
| Saturday, December 7, 2019 | 90 harbor seals hauled-out on main sandbar, including some old-timers back for their 16th year
| SEAL WALK |
| Sunday, December 8, 2019 | 70 seals seen at 8:30 AM were spooked off the haulout by a slow moving vessel within 2 minutes. By the time we arrived at 10:00 only about 10 were seen swimming
| SEAL WALK |
| Monday, December 17, 2019 | 96 harbor seals hauled-out on main sandbar,
| SEAL MONITORING SESSION |
| Saturday, December 21, 2019 | 103 seals were hauled out on the main sandbar during an early monitoring session, but once again had been spooked off the haulout while we were away. When we arrived at 10:00 only 8 hauled out rocks. PHOTOS UNAVAILABLE | SEAL WALK |
| Sunday, December 22, 2019 | 113 harbor seals were hauled out on the main sandbar during our early monitoring session. Unbelievably, yet again, they had been flushed from the haulout by the time we returned 2 hours later.
Surprisingly, we found 30 seals hauled out on a distant sandbar northeast of the usual haulout (secondary haul-out site). With patience, we were ultimately watch 30 additional harbor seals haul back onto the main haulout site!
| SEAL WALK |
| Tuesday, December 24, 2019 | 127 harbor seals were hauled out on the main sandbar
| SEAL MONITORING SESSION |
| Sunday, January 05, 2020 | 102 harbor seals were hauled out on the main sandbar
| SEAL WALK |
| Friday, January 10, 2020 | 25 harbor seals hauled out on their secondary region of the sandbar, utilized when disturbed from the main area
| SEAL MONITORING SESSION |
| Sunday, January 12, 2020 | 73 harbor seals (70 on seals were hauled out on the main sandbar and 3 on rocks)
| SEAL MONITORING SESSION |
| Saturday, January 18, 2020 | 87 harbor seals (78 on seals were hauled out on the main sandbar and 9 on rocks)
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| Sunday, January 19, 2020 | 64 harbor seals (61 on main sandbar and 3 on rocks)
| SEAL WALK |
| Wednesday, January 22, 2020 | 137 harbor seals (130 on main sandbar and 7 on rocks)
Prior to a seal walk for the Saxon Middle School of Patchogue, @DrArtieK photographed and took video of 137 harbor seals hauled out (130 on the sandbar and 7 on the rocks) at Cupsogue. With the school group, we stopped at the newer parking area just to get a glimpse of the seals from a distance. We watched in disbelief as an airplane (C-FBKB of Kenn Borek Air Limited) flew over the seals and spooked all into the water. The plane continued to fly over the area repeatedly and we were able to get clear photos to send to the authorities
| SEAL WALK FOR SAXTON MIDDLE SCHOOL (PATCHOGUE) |
| Friday, January 24, 2020 | 17 harbo
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