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Commonly
Sighted Local Marine Species
The Gulf of Maine is home to a wide variety of marine life.
This section provides information on the species that we most
commonly see on our whale watch/research trips. Our trips
focus on looking for cetaceans, which is the word for whales,
dolphins and porpoises.
Click here for a fact sheet in cetaceans and to
learn about characteristics that are common to all whales, dolphins
and porpoises!
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Individual Species Information
(Click on the species
name to see more photos & information)
Humpback Whale
(Latin Name: Megaptera novaeangliae, meaning "long-winged New
Englander")
Length:
40-50 feet
Weight:
30 tons
Cool Whale Fact : Male humpback whales “sing” on their winter
breeding grounds in the Caribbean.
Every male sings the same song, and the song changes slightly from year to
year.
Finback Whale 
(Latin Name: Balaenoptera physalus, meaning “Bellows fin whale”)
Length:
60-80 feet
Weight:
50-70 tons
Cool Whale Fact: Finbacks are the fastest whales in the world, sometimes
reaching speeds of 35 mph during short bursts of swimming.
Minke Whale
(Latin Name: Balaenoptera
acuturostrata, meaning “Sharp snouted whale")
Length:
20-30 feet
Weight:
6-8 tons
Cool Whale Fact: Nickname is “little piked whale” which was given to the
minke whale by a British zoologist who claimed that the sharp, pointed snout
“is like that of the Pike fish.”
 Right
Whale
(Latin name: Eubalaena glacialis,
meaning “True whale in icy water”)
Length:
58 feet
Weight:
100 tons
Cool Whale Fact: The head of a right whale is covered with large, white
colored growths called callosities.
These rough patches of skin correspond to where humans have hair on their
face.
The location of these callosities is different for each whale and
allows scientists to identify individuals.
 Atlantic
White-sided Dolphin
(Latin name: Lagenorhynchus acutus)
Length:
7-9 feet
Weight:
400-600 pounds
Cool Whale Fact: Qhite-sided dolphins often gather in groups, or pods,
up to several hundred. When feeding, dolphins will work cooperatively
within these pods to herd prey. Dolphins find their food by
echolocation, or producing clicking sounds and interpreting the
returning echo.
Harbor Seal
(Latin name: Phoca vitulina concolor, meaning “Sea dog”)
Length:
4-5 feet
Weight:
150-200 pounds
Cool Seal Fact: From 1888 to 1962, the state of Massachusetts offered a
bounty on harbor seals in order to reduce the population numbers.
It was thought that with fewer seals, there would be an increase in
the number of fish caught by the fishermen.
Basking
Shark 
(Latin name: Cetorhinus maximus)
Length:
12-30 feet
Weight:
up to 4 tons
Cool
Shark Fact: Even though a basking shark can reach lengths of 30 feet, it
cannot harm humans. This is
because the shark filters tiny zooplankton from the ocean with its huge gill
rakers.
 Ocean Sunfish
(Latin name: Mola mola)
Length:
11 feet
Weight:
2000 pounds
Cool
Fish Fact: Ocean sunfish are a solitary, slow moving fish.
To seek protection from enemies, the skin of an ocean sunfish can be
nearly six inches thick!
Harbor
Porpoise
(Latin name: Phocoena phocoena, meaning “Pig fish)
Length:
4-6 feet
Weight:
150 pounds
Cool
Porpoise Fact: The largest threat to the future survival of harbor
porpoises is the accidental entanglement in gill nets set on the bottom of the
ocean floor.
Giant Bluefin Tuna
(Latin name: Thunnus thynnus)
Length: up to 10 feet
Weight: up to 1200 pounds
Cool
Tuna Fact: Giant bluefin tuna can swim up to 55
mph, and they can live longer than 30 years!
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