9 am trip - Tammy
Winds out of the NW made for a rough ride offshore today but the whales made it worth it! Once we got to Stellwagen Bank, we had about 10-15 humpback whale scattered over a couple of miles.
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| humpback whale traveling |
We started watching several single animals and several pairs of humpbacks. Some animals were feeding and we got to see multiple behaviors related to feeding. One humpback whale was lunge feeding at the surface and we could just see the tail-end of the lunge as the mouth closed and the animal started to strain water out of the mouth.
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| humpback whale straining |
Another humpback named Tornado was kick feeding, or using her tail to stun small bait fish. Tornado is a female humpback whale with a mostly black fluke.
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| tail pattern of Tornado |
We ended our trip with great looks at a group of four humpback whales including a yearling and a mature adult named Tear. Just as we approached this group, we saw Tear tail -breach! The young animal then became quite curious and gave us a close approach as three of the other whales swam behind and very close to the boat. It was a great ending to this morning's trip! Identified humpback whales include Tornado, Tear and Pleats.
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| humpback whale Tear diving |
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| group of humpbacks traveling by our boat |
2 pm trip - Tammy
The winds and seas died down this afternoon making for a more comfortable ride. We headed back to Stellwagen Bank where we picked up a pair of humpback whales that were leisurely traveling just below the surface. We then moved on to a group of five humpback whales. This group included a mom and calf pair, Bolide and calf.
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| Bolide (left) and calf (right) |
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| Bolide's tail |
The group also contained a humpback whale named Owl. Owl had some deep propeller scars on her back, indicating she has been struck by a boat. It is known that Owl got hit by a boat several years ago, but the scars we saw today look different and new. We will be sharing these photos with the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies humpback whale research program so that this case can be documented. While this serves as a harsh reminder about the dangers that humans can cause to whales, Owl seems to be doing just fine and she may even be a mom! We had a second small whale in the group that might be a calf and could belong to Owl.
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| Owl's propeller scars |
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| Owl (back) and Bolide (front) traveling |
At one point we even saw a young gray seal pop up and curiously swim towards us!
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| gray seal |
We had amazing views of the group of five humpbacks as we watched them for the remainder of our trip. It was a great day offshore!
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