Monday, July 13, 2015 Whale Watches

9am trip - Tammy

We had beautiful weather today with warm temperatures and calm seas. We traveled to Stellwagen Bank and found a pair of humpback whales to start our trip. These two humpbacks were traveling and feeding together and they gave us some great looks at the head and baleen as they were open mouth feeding. One of the humpbacks was a whale named Pixar. 

humpback whales, Pixar and friend

Pixar and friend feeding

humpback whale diving

  We had a couple of distant looks at other humpback whales in the area. One of those animals was a whale named Reaper that was creating some splashes as she used her tail to stun bait, a behavior called kick feeding. But we spent the rest of our morning with a humpback named Spoon and her 2015 calf. 

Spoon (right) and her calf of this year (left)

 Spoon and calf gave us incredible looks as they swam right next to and under our boat. This curious calf surfaced right near our bow several times! The water was clear and calm, allowing us to see the body and flippers under the water.

Spoon's calf off the bow

We also got to see Spoon and her calf logging or resting at the surface. It was a great morning offshore!

2pm trip - Tammy

We finished the day with a three species trip! As we arrived on the southwest corner of Stellwagen Bank, we picked up three finback whales. We had great looks at the second largest whale species in the world.

finback whale

 Also on the southwest corner we found a trio of humpback whales which included Dyad and her calf and an unknown escort. We saw all three whales raise their flukes as they dove before we moved on in search of more animals.

trio of humpback whales

A humpback whale named Reaper displayed some incredible kick-feeding behavior. Reaper likes to raise her flukes (and much of her body!) high out of the water before striking the surface to stun the bait. Reaper would then lunge mouth open, taking in lots of fish and then straining. We got to see a really cool behavior called snaking, where a whale will bend it's body so that the head and tail (and sometimes the dorsal fin) are visible at once. This movement helps the whale strain the water out of its mouth, through the baleen plates. Humpback whales are very flexible!

Reaper kick feeding

Reaper snaking

Spoon and calf made another appearance this afternoon. We got to see bubble-netting behavior from Spoon, another method humpback whales use to catch fish.

humpback whale lunge feeding

Sightings of another pair of humpbacks and a minke whale completed a wonderful afternoon!