9 am trip - Tammy
Humpback whales, finback whales, Atlantic white-sided
dolphins and lots of activity made for a great morning! Everywhere you looked
there were whales, dolphins and birds charging, bubble-netting and lunging with
open mouths taking advantage of the plentiful small forage fish of Stellwagen
Bank. We got to see 10-15 humpback whales
kick-feeding and using bubble nets to catch prey.
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| humpback whale finishing a lunge |
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| humpback whale surfacing through a bubble net |
There were probably about a
dozen finback whales throughout the area. Some finbacks were side-lunging and
we had incredible views of the rorqual pleats.
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| finback whale |
100-200 dolphins were spread out
over a wide area foraging along-side the whales. When we would travel, dolphins would ride
our bow or surf our wake.
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| Atlantic white-sided dolphin |
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| dolphins on the bow |
Identified
humpback whales include: Storm, Hatchmark, Striation and Reaper. It was an exciting morning offshore!
2 pm trip - Tammy
We headed back to the same area this afternoon. The number of whales around was still impressive and humpback and finback whales could be seen all around the boat, near and far. But the whale behaviors were different this afternoon. Most
humpback whales seemed to be logging or resting.
We had really nice looks at several animals
including single humpback whales Tongs and Storm as well as a pair of humpbacks
named Putter and Strike. Putter and
Strike stayed together most of the afternoon, logging and occasionally diving.
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| humpback whales Putter and Strike |
The occasional large splash in the distance told us that there were active
whales in the area, though the activity was sporadic and short lived. We
watched finback whales cruise through the area; some were traveling solo but we
saw three finbacks swimming quite fast together.
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| finback whales traveling |
Just before heading home we
got to see a small harbor seal pop it’s head up for a few seconds. While a little more low key, it was still a great afternoon offshore with sightings of three different species!
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| harbor seal |
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