Saturday, October 9, 2015 Whale Watch

12 pm trip - Tammy

Rough seas made for a tough trip today. But even though it's getting late in the season, there is still lots of activity offshore.  We traveled to Stellwagen Bank and managed to find a concentration of 4-6 humpback whales feeding with hundreds of birds including northern gannets, great sheatwaters, sooty shearwaters and gulls. 



humpback whale

Some humpbacks were kick-feeding or chin-kick-feeding to stun their prey. We identified one humpback whale as a female named Echo.


humpback whale fluking out


Hundreds of birds were feeding alongside the whales, taking advantage of the work the whales were doing to concentration the bait at the surface. Sometimes the whales would lunge mouth open. We could see the jaws and head of the animals as they strained the water out through the baleen. Humpback whale Echo even surprised us and surfaced right off the bow at one point. It was a wet and wild ride for sure, but we love great whale sightings into October!

humpback whale traveling