Saturday, September 26, 2015 Whale Watch

12 pm trip - Tammy


Fall whale watching is officially underway! Today was certainly a blustery fall day offshore, but we are savoring our last few weeks on the water until it's time to say good-bye to our whale "friends" until next year.

A single humpback whale named Music was our first sighting of the day. Music would surface for 3-5 breaths and then dive for 8-9 minutes at a time. We never got a good look at Music's fluke though, suggesting that Music was not diving very deep and maybe just preferred to stay submerged below the rough surface waters. When Music was on the surface, it was neat to this whale "surfing" over the waves.

rainbow whale!

Our second sighting was a pair of humpback whales. We identified one animal as Northstar.

humpback whale Northstar

humpback whale diving

While we waited for both whales to surface in between dives, we started noticing green bubbles appearing at on the surface. Humpback whales often use bubbles to help catch their prey and this was a sign to us that this pair was probably feeding deep. Since Northstar and friend had probably found a good prey patch below us, they weren't traveling too far during their dives. They even surprised us a couple of times when they surfaced right next to the boat!

humpback whale diving

humpbacks whales in the distance

Saturday, September 19, 2015 Whale Watch

12 pm trip - Tammy

Today we had beautiful weather and a fantastic time with two humpback whale pairs. Both pairs were moms and their 2015 calves.

humpback whale mom and calf

  The first pair started out traveling and diving, but eventually became interested in us. Both animals gave us a close approach and seemed to be just content hanging out on our starboard side. Mom and calf both rolled over periodically, giving us great views of their long, powerful pectoral flippers.

mom and calf hanging out next to our boat

As we watched this first mom and calf, we started noticing some splashing in the distance. Once this pair had moved safely away from our boat, we made our way over to check out what caused the splashing. It turned out we had another humpback mom named Jabiru and her calf of this year. Both whales had breached previously, but started engaging in flipper slapping once we arrived.

Jabiru's calf belly up!

This pair also gave us a close approach! The calf swam right under the bow, raising its tail high in the air as it dove under us!

Jabiru's calf diving

Both Jabiru and her calf were so close to the boat that I was able to get a photo of the calf's wide-open eye. So cool! Such amazing encounters offshore today!

Jabiru's calf rolling on its side

Jabiru's calf sneaking a peak at us!

Saturday, September 12, 2015 Whale Watch

 12 pm trip - Tammy

 Today was a beautiful day for whale watching! Our first sighting though, was of the fish variety - an ocean sunfish or Mola mola. Ocean sunfish are the largest bony fish in the world and can reach lengths of 8 feet. This fish wasn't that large, but we had nice views of this fish as it basked at the surface.

ocean sunfish

We spent the rest of our trip with a group of four humpback whales, including whales named Perseid and Komodo.

Perseid's tail

This group of four humpbacks was sub-surface feeding. The whales would come up for 2-3 breaths before diving again. They surfaced all around the boat, including right off the bow and the stern.

humpback whale off the bow

Sometimes the whales would surface together as a group and other times they would split into two pairs. Between feeding bouts the whales displayed some social behavior, including trumpeting and some rolling.  


two humpbacks

all four whales together

Great afternoon on the water!

Saturday, September 5, 2015 Whale Watches

9 am trip - Tammy

Cool temperatures and a northeast breeze made it feel a little like fall this morning! We traveled to the east side of Stellwagen Bank where the whales were plentiful. We got to see 8-10 humpback whales on today's trip. A pair of humpbacks named Mostaza and Komodo were resting together and another humpback named Brine was traveling solo.

humpback whale off the bow

Two other baleen whale species were sighted this morning. We spotted quite a few minke whales, the smallest of the baleen whales in the Gulf of Maine. We also had a brief sighting of a finback whale, the second largest whale in the world.

minke whale

 Activity picked up a bit just before our time was up. A group of four humpbacks got together to feed using bubble clouds. In this group was an unidentified mother-calf pair. The mother humpback was doing a really neat behavior called snaking, where the head and tail of the whale are visible. This probably helps the whale strain the water out of it's mouth after feeding. Great morning offshore!

group of feeding humpbacks

humpback whale lunging



humpback whale snaking with flippers out


2 pm trip - Tammy

Stellwagen Bank was a much different place this afternoon, with calmer seas, fewer whales overall and "snoozing" humpbacks. However, we had two amazing close approachs by two different mother and calf pairs as well as a couple of minke whale sightings!


humpback mother-calf pair



calf off the bow!

 The first humpback pair was logging when we arrived. Mom continued resting below the surface most of the time, but the calf would occassionally come right over to the boat! Almost the same situation occurred with the second mother and calf pair. Both whales would log or slowly travel and the calf would get curious and come "visit" while mom was resting below the surface. What amazing encounters this afternoon!





close approaches by a humpback calf

humpback mom and calf