Saturday, August 29, 2015 Whale Watches

9 am trip - Tammy

We headed toward the east side of Stellwagen Bank and had an exciting morning filled with feeding activity! Ten to fifteen humpbacks were spread throughout the area feeding along with at least one finback whale. We got to see whales kicking to stun bait and lunging mouth open.

humpback with mouth open

humpback whale finishing a lunge

 Two mom and calf pairs made appearances today. We got to spend time with Abrasion and calf and Cardhu and calf. Both pairs spent lots of time at the surface.

Abrasion and calf

 We had several looks at a well-known male humpback whale named Colt, one of my favorites! Colt was initially traveling and feeding alone but then he paired up with a female humpback named Samara.  Our last looks were of Colt and Samara traveling and diving together. 

humpback whale Colt

 On our way home we spotted the dorsal fin of an ocean sunfish skulling back and forth at the surface. Great views of this fish!

ocean sunfish or Mola mola

2pm trip

We started this afternoon with a pair of humpbacks that were resting.  Both animals logged side by side, just below and at the surface which allowed us just sit nearby and get excellent looks at their bodies.



humpback whales resting

  After leaving this pair, we headed to the east and eventually spotted some splashing in the distance. This splashing was actually a mother and calf humpback pair that were breaching!  Mom’s name is Cardhu and both animals breached several times.

Cardhu and calf

spinning breach!

 We also got to see flipper slapping from mom and calf as well as tail breaches and chin breaches from the calf. It’s interesting to think about what might have been going on between these two!

Cardhu (foreground) and calf flipper slapping

a look at the head and blowholes

While in this area we also had quick looks at another humpback pair passing through, as well as a minke whale. It was a fantastic afternoon of whale watching!