“Captain’s Lady 111” is 106 ft. long and is Eighteen Years old. She is Used for Whale Watching Cruises in the Gulf of Maine, Out of Newburyport, MA. Under the Name  – Captain’s Fishing Parties & Cruises.  She Seats 149 Passengers,

Kristin Daley, Naturalist, with George Charos, Who Founded the Fishing  Company in 1973.

Whether it’s a small sloop or a ferry from the nearby Casco Bay Lines, the chances are good that you can find almost any boat at Portland Yacht Services, on the western  Portland waterfront.

A boat that fits somewhere in there is the 106 ft.  “Captain’s Lady 111”, out of Newburyport, Massachusetts.  It was recently briefly on shore while the owner conducted some boat business involving her future under different ownership.

This.blogger was lucky enough to meet Kristin Daley, a naturalist aboard her for the third year.  Kristin, who is working on her Master’s Degree in Conservation Biology at Unity College is a wealth of information on the whale population in the Gulf of Maine.

Initially, she explained that the Gulf runs from Cape Cod up to Canada.  Two of her duties aboard the boat are to educate the public about whales.  Her second job aboard is to collect data on whales for the Center for Coastal Studies.

“There is a 99% chance of seeing whales on our cruises,” said Kristin.  “That’s because there is a convenient feeding ground here.”

Kristin described three different types of whales that inhabit the New England coast and for which  she collects data for the Center for Coastal Studies.   The first is the hunch back whale.  It was removed from the endangered species list in 2016.  However, it still faces many dangers  to its survival.  They incude danger from fishing gear and from boat strikes.  She says that currently there are about 1,500 hump backs between Cape Cod and Canada.  She has been researching the population for about ten years on other boats as well.  She sometimes gives whales names; Spoon is one of her favorites.  She is one of the oldest females, believed to be 49 years old.  Hump backs can live to be between  80 – 100 years old she said.

Another whale many are familiar with is the right whale.  There are only about 370 of them in the North Atlantic.  They are endangered and that is because they are hunted a lot and they reproduce much slower than the hump back.  They also come closer to shore and consequently are easier to capture.  Their existence is also threatened by strikes by boats.

The third and final species that Kristin talked about was the fin back whales.  It’s the second largest whale on earth she said.  It runs between 70 – 75 feet long and weighs 200,000 lbs.  It’s very elusive  It’s called the greyhound of the sea because it can swim up to 30 miles per hour.  Fins are also threatened by ship strikes.  Currently, in the Gulf of Maine there are 7,000 of them.

Following each trip out into the Gulf, Kristin reports back to the Center of Coastal Studies on her observations of the whale population in the Gulf of Maine.  That includes information on the health of the whales as well as their behavior.  The Center wants to know how many whales were seen on each trip.

During the off-season, Kristin is involved with the Whalemobile!  It;s a life size inflatable whale that is transported to schools and libraries to spark curiousity and inspire ocean stewartship according to its webpage.  The webpage must be seen to  fully appreciate the Whalemobile!.  Childen have all kinds of questions.  Like:   Do whales sleep?  The Whalemobile has visited many schools in Maine, including Bar Harbor.  The phone number for information on this is 617-838-2646. For information on the whale watch schedule, please call 978-462-3141.

It was  fascinating meeting Captain Chris Charos and his delightful crew aboard the “Captain’s Lady 111,”  Chris said one of the reasons for his coming ashore at Portland Yacht Services is because of the yard’s travellift that will accommodate boats weighing 300  tons.  “There are just no travellifts in our Newburport area that would accommodate a boat of the size of “Captain’s Lady 111,”  he said.  Chris is the son of founder George in this family-owned busiess.