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!

Friday, July 10, 2015 - 9 am and 2 pm Whale watches

9 am Trip - Leah

Slight change in events over the last few days, more whales have been traveling through and staying around Stellwagen Bank.  There was more bait in the area then recently so the activity feeding wise flourished as well.  We've had a bit more of everything, more finbacks, more humpbacks, more minkes, hopefully they will stay around.  

Rocker has returned along with a bunch more whales that were not around recently.  Over the course of this trip we saw: Nile, Rocker, Venom, Pitcher, Putter, Lariat, Northstar, Strike, Soot, Stub, Spoon and calf, and possibly Cardhu and calf.  

We saw some great feeding behaviors and had amazing looks at the whales and enjoyed every second with them because we never know how long it will last.  

Here is Soot, one of our humpbacks that came into the area and was amongst the dozens that were passing through.  

 

More feeding frenzy whales showing us bubble net feeding and straining at the surface. It was a great day to be offshore with all the whales.  Hopefully there is more to come.  

2 pm Trip - Leah

We started off our trip this afternoon with some finback whales and this one in particular caught my eye because of the mottled pattern on its back.  At first I thought it must have rested at the surface to long and got a sunburn but luckily whales in the wild don't spend as much time at the surface compared to whales in captivity.  This mottled pattern should be natural markings either sloughing of skin or just some scuffing.  

A sudden breach from a whale in a larger group, right in front of a whale traveling along.  This whale even has darker flippers than the rest.  Most of our whales have very white flippers but a few have more black than usual. 

This is a humpback named Dracula, you can see the fangs on the left side of the whales fluke.  This is the first year that I think I've ever seen this whale.  It's always nice to meet new friends.  

More lunge feeding from the humpback whales and below is a sequence of a humpback named Fulcrum doing a complete behavior from start to finish of kick feeding.  We miss out on the acivity that happens under the water like the blowing of the bubbles but the surface behavior is amazing. 

That was kick number one, sometimes depending on the whale the kicks either happen once or a few times, up to three kicks on average per kick feed sequence.  

That was the second kick, Fulcrum then went on a quick dive circling back to engulf the stunned fish that were trapped inside the bubble net at the surface of the water.  The bubble cloud below shows Fulcrum starting to surface slowly mouth wide open right in the middle of the mess of bubbles and squirming fish. 

Here's a shot of the baleen that helps the whales strain there food out of the water and trap all the fish they engulf inside.  This was a neat shot to catch but I would not want to be right in front of that mouth coming at me.  

Thursday, July 9, 2015 - 9 am and 2 pm Whale Watches

9 am Trip - Leah

Another cloudy morning out on the water but finding the whales was no problem and always fantastic to see.  We had a very quick chin breach from one of our humpbacks that drew us into the area and kept us searching from the others.  

Northstar was out traveling through the area and playing around going on pretty regular dives. Probably searching for food but while we were out there they weren't settling down to feed.  So we watched Northstar surface a few times before continuing on to Spoon and her calf since they were still around.  

Spoon and her calf were all tuckered out from so much activity the last few days they were mostly resting at the surface and enjoying a little relaxing time to themselves.  

2 pm Trip - Leah

On the afternoon trip the sun came out a little bit more and we had a wonderful look at a finback whale with Race Point Lighthouse in the background.  It's amazing how close to shore the whales will sometimes head.   

As we continued on we found that Spoon had settled down from searching and found an abundance of food to feast on.  Many times we got to see her surfacing mouth open and then straining to to swallow the fish whole.  

Spoon's calf kept surfacing right in her way.  Almost every time she would surface the calf would be right there in front of her lower jaw.  I was hoping the calf was coaxing mom to play but we had no such luck, mom was to busy feeding.  

She still always gave us a great look at her tail so that we definitely knew that it was her and her calf traveling and feeding in this area for us to observe.  

Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - 9 am and 2 pm Whale Watches

9 am trip - Leah

A bit of a cloudy day today but the weather never stops the whales from doing whatever they need to do out on Stellwagen Bank.  We had a wilson's storm petrel that flew quite close to the boat and is one of the smallest birds we see and hardest to keep track of while they dart around above the water.  

We came across Northstar today who is very easy to identify by the large scars on the whales back in front of the dorsal fin.  Almost every whale in the water has some type of scars or scrapes from either boat strikes or entanglement scars.  Even as we try to minimize our impact on then and educate passengers about the dangers we pose to these whales accidents to these whales still happen.

We also came across Nile, one of my favorite whales, she's the best whale to see because no matter what happens we can always count on her to be around for passengers to see.  

I love going out offshore to see the whales no matter what they are doing because they always surprise me and always keep me coming back for more.  I still learn more about them everyday and will continue watching them because they still fascinate me.  

2 pm Trip - Leah

During the afternoon trip we had a bit of an ominous looking sky but that didn't stop us from finding and watching some wonderful whales.  We had great sights of humpback whales but I think our finback whale sighting was the best of the day.  

We found Spoon and her calf and they were up to their usual active selves rolling and traveling around.  We got one breach which I got the frustrating photo of the splash at the end, you can't get them all.  Sometimes you're lucky, and I wasn't lucky this time.  

Then after watching Spoon and her calf for a bit we found a mother and calf pair of finback whales.  Tis was amazing to me because we don't see this very often.  Seeing the size difference between the mom and calf was ridiculous, they are such differing sizes compared to each other.  

This calf finback gave us the greatest close approach it was amazing.  I've never seen them come that close to the boat before and this calf was even curious about us and gave us a spyhop which I never in my wildest dreams would have expected to happen.   

I didn't even know they would be curious about us like the humpbacks are, it was so fantastic.  I couldn't even explain to the passengers how awesome it was for that to happen.  

There they go, mom and calf finback on their way to continue traveling through the area.  These two photos so clearly show just how big the mother is compared to the calf, it's so impressive.  

We got a crazy downpour while watching the finbacks but it was well worth it to stay and watch them.  Whales live in the water so a little bit, or a lot more, doesn't bother them in the slightest and it doesn't seem to affect their behaviors in anyway either.