"Can you take Leviathan Home as a Pet?"...

“If you merely touched him, you’d never forget.” Wonderful lines from an old Michael Card song about Job from the Bible. God is reminding Job just who he is talking to, someone who can take Leviathan home as a pet. Every time I am on a Whale Watch trip and the whales come “poooshing” up with an exhalation, practically in your face, as you lean out over the bow, I think of the truth of that line. If you merely touched him, if you merely saw him this close, you would never forget. Consequently, I am an avid, more than avid some might say, dragger of people on whale watches whenever they come to visit us here on the Cape in summer.

And so, this past weekend we had just such an opportunity. My youngest daughter was home for the weekend with friends and one of them had never been on a whale watch, so, hot dog, a fresh victim, a fresh excuse to go! We are so fortunate to be one of the top 10 whaling spots on earth, so really, to miss this, is to miss the main event. Humpbacks, Finbacks, Minke, and Northern Right Whales all love to graze around Stellwagons Bank, just northwest off the tip of Provincetown so the trips are bound to produce something. I always favor the sunset trip, the last one of the day, for whatever you may see will be highlighted by a glowing orange sky. On one amazing trip when my children were young we saw a humpback breach more than a dozen times with the setting sun directly behind him.

But wow, Saturday when we went, it was completely whale soup! Humpbacks are always the main draw, for they are the most athletic of all the whales. Over past trips we have seen innumerable breeches, when they leap all 40 tons out of the water and crash back down with a huge spray, tail lobbing, flipper flapping, and fluke throwing. But the last few years have been superdy-duper spectacular with many more feeding displays than I remember seeing in earlier years. Maybe the sand lances that they love have increased in number, but whatever the reason it is beyond spectacular.


This past weekend we came upon several pairs of whales churning the water pale green with their “bubble nets”, then watched them coming up like synchronized swimmers right in the middle of it with mouths wide open. They were so close you could clearly see their baleen, hanging in sheets and even the pink upper palette of their mouth. Then they would cruise along at the surface, mouths still slightly open with their lower jaw with its rorqual pleats ballooned out as they filtered the water out and kept the fish in. Incredible, and more so, because it was happening within feet of the boat. One such pass brought them right under our bow, with a loud “booch” of exhalation that spread misty whale breath over we eager folks who spend the time out as far on the bow as is allowed.


And you know that is the secret to an exciting whale ride. As soon as you get on board, head up front, stake your claim on this narrow part of the boat and ride out that hour of high-speed, up-and-down with the waves, that gets you to Stellwagon. Its worth it just for the wild ride that is, and puts you in perfect position to be among the first to spot the whales, and the most likely to get whale breath on your face. And who would want to miss that!

Ok, back to the whales. So at the risk of anthropomorphizing, you sure would have guessed we had shown up at suppertime. Apparently there were schools of lances, small fish that they love, and everyone was joining in on the feast, so not only were there several pairs of humpbacks but, also, feeding along with them were Finback whales, second only to the Blue whales in size. They are long and slender and seldom show much more than a dorsal fin, but these were lifting their long narrow heads out of the water and showing much more than I am used to seeing of a Finback. Zipping around all of these were Minke whales. Small for baleen whales but 30 tons of zippiness all the same.


As if that wasn’t enough, several pods of Atlantic White Sided dolphins showed up, crisscrossing crazily among the larger baleen whales, putting this on the map as one of the best whale watches ever! Toothed whales are the high-speed whales who love to ride the boats bow, or leap, Sea World like, three abreast. It was just incredible! Now, add the birds, pelagic birds you only see out to sea, like Greater Shearwaters and Wilson’s Storm Petrel. The Shearwaters swooped in, practically swooping into the whale’s open jaws to go after the same obviously irresistible sand lances. Wow, wow, wow! What a gift it all was-to my daughter, to me, to her friends, to everyone on the boat.


Interestingly, when it was finally over, our guide warned us against ever expecting anything like that again. “You should expect a nice boat ride and a sighting of a whale or two and be happy with that”. Well, respectfully, I beg to differ. Take the sunset trip, spend the whole time out on the bow, look for glory in the sea, the sky, the wind, and I think each time, you too would leave singing, “Can you take Leviathan home as a pet, if you merely touched him you’d never forget.” Or whatever song reflects pure gladness in your heart.