9 am trip - Tammy
Today we traveled to the south west corner of Stellwagen Bank. Here we found 8-10 humpback whales that were mostly hanging out in pairs.
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| pair of humpback whales |
We spent a little bit of time with each pair, watching the whales take several breaths at the surface before lifting the flukes and diving.
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| humpback whale diving |
Calm seas and clear water gave us some amazing views of these animals when they came near the boat. We had a couple of close approaches and we could see the entire outline of the whale's body.
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| humpback whale at the surface |
Towards the end of our trip, a pair of humpback whales joined with a trio of humpbacks to create a group of five whales. The group included a male humpback named Tear and a mother named Spoon and her calf. Spoon is an older (and exceptionally large!) whale, first seen in the 1970s and she has had several calves. This group swam right under our bow giving us amazing looks. Tear was also quite active throughout the morning. We saw several breaches at a distance and also some flipper slapping from Tear. It was a great morning offshore! Other identified humpback whales include: Music, Nile, Pitcher, Tear, Spoon and calf.
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| Tear's fluke |
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| humpback whale Tear flipper slapping |
2 pm trip - Tammy
Our afternoon trip took us to the same location, the south west corner of Stellwagen Bank. Some of the same whales were still around, but other individuals had moved in this afternoon. In total, there were likely still 8-10 humpback whales. Many single humpback whales were resting (logging) or slowly traveling.
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| humpback whale |
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| humpback whale fluking out |
We started watching a trio of humpback whales that were logging. Occassionally one animal would lift it's head out of the water, a behavior called spyhopping. It's thought that spyhopping whales are attempting to get a better look at what's going on above the surface.
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| trio of humpbacks logging |
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| trio of humpbacks, note the middle whale spyhopping |
Soon this trio of humpbacks became a group of four whales. There was lots of rolling, trumpeting, splashing: all signs of social interactions between these whales. We had several close looks off the bow as the whales went under the boat.
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four humpbacks interacting
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A great afternoon trip to round out the day!
I was on the whale watch today at 2pm. I haven't been there in about 20-years and brought my mom. We had an incredible experience as they were so close to us and saw 2 jump out of the water. I'm so thankful for the show they put on today.
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