Saturday, July 18, 2015 Whale Watches

9 am trip - Tammy

We had lots of activity on Stellwagen Bank this morning. Our first sighting was of a humpback whale trio which included a mother and calf and an escort. The escort, a whale named Northstar, quickly left the trio and we spent lots of time with the mother, who we identified as Nimbus, and her calf. Great looks at this special pair!

Nimbus and calf

 Our next sighting was of an active humpback whale that showed us many of the acrobatic behaviors that humpbacks are famous for! We saw lobtailing, breaching and flipper slaping! We only see breaching on ~10% of our trips and no matter how many times you get to witness it, it's always amazing to see.

humpback whale breaching

humpback whale flipper slapping

lobtailing behavior by a humpback whale

 We ended our trip with a pair of adult humpback whales named Etch-a-sketch and Tunguska. Etch-a-sketch is the granddaughter of Salt, the most studied humpback whale in the world. Last year Etch-a-sketch had her first calf, making Salt a great grandmother! It's always nice to see old "friends" offshore.


Etch-a-sketch's tail

2 pm trip - Tammy

High activity continued for this afternoon's trip. A group of three humpback whales, Apex and calf and escort, was our first sighting. Apex's calf showed us some tail breaching and some small chin breaches while it traveled beside mom. Another whale joined this trio, forming a group of four humpbacks.

Apex and calf

tail breach by Apex's calf

Also in this same area were two pairs of humpback whales, Echo and Tectonic and Pele with an unidentified whale. We had nice looks at both pairs as they swam by and fluked.

humpback whale Echo

Nimbus and calf were also around this afternoon and the calf seemed to be having a grand ol' time. We saw displays of tail breaching, chin breaching and flipper slapping from Nimbus' calf.

Nimbus' calf

In between bouts of activity, mom and calf would travel into the wind and we had great looks at their bodies as they surfed over the waves. 

Nimbus' calf riding the waves

Overall, a fanastic day offshore with lots of whales and lots of activity!