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

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! 

Saturday, August 22, 2015 Whale Watches

9 am trip - Tammy

This morning we headed toward Race Point, Provincetown where we found hundreds of sea birds and quite a few whales. We focused on two single humpback whales who were feeding deep in the water column.  Both animals were small, young whales. We had several good looks at each animal as well as distant looks at a group of three finback whales.

humpback whale

humpback whale diving

an unknown humpback whale's tail pattern

We then headed to the north and we came across a single finback whale. While we were only with this animal for one surfacing, this large whale traveled down the right side of our boat giving us a great look at its massive, stream-lined body.

finback whale

We ended our trip by spending some time with a pair of humpback whales, Cardhu and her 2015 calf. The calf was traveling alongside mom and even stopped to nurse for a few minutes.  We ended our trip on a good note with this special pair!

Cardhu and calf

2 pm trip - Tammy

Luckily the rain held off for most of this afternoon’s trip.  We headed to the southwest corner of Stellwagen Bank where we spotted a single humpback whale.  This humpback treated us to several spinning head breaches!

a view of a humpback whale's blowholes

We then moved on to watch a group of five humpback whales, including two mother and calf pairs. This group included Cajun and calf, Jabiru and calf and a male humpback named Pele.  We had gorgeous looks at this group as they traveled and fluked together.

humpback whale Pele fluking out

group of humpbacks

group of humpbacks diving toward the boat

On our way home we found another single humpback whale named Nile who was feeding deep. We spent a few minutes with Nile, watching her produce green bubble clouds to help capture prey and then surface through them.  It was a great afternoon trip!

Nile's fluke

Saturday, August 15, 2015 Whale Watches

9 am trip - Tammy

W e got to spend time with five different humpback whales on this morning’s trip. Large splashes caught our eye as we reached Stellwagen Bank, which turned out to be a breaching humpback! We saw several types of active behaviors including breaching, lobtailing and flipper slapping.

spinning breach

lobtailing

unknown, active humpback whale

We had quick looks at three other single humpbacks, one of which was named Startrail. These animals were traveling and diving.

 A humpback whale named Gladiator gave us some amazing looks at the end of our trip. This whale started to feed and used bubble clouds to catch prey. Gladiator created a couple of bubble clouds right next to our boat, surfacing right off the bow through the green bubbles!  It was great to see some breaching and feeding behavior this morning.

Gladiator's tail

Gladiator surfacing through a bubble cloud

2pm trip - Tammy

This afternoon we traveled east of Stellwagen Bank where we picked up a single humpback whale named Circuit.  We had beautiful views of Circuit as she stayed on the surface for several breaths in between dives.  

humpback whale Circuit diving

We then made a trek down the backside of Cape Cod to an area full of activity. Several whales and hundreds of seabirds surrounded us.  A pair of finback whales was lunge feeding just below the surface and we had great looks at the pair as they traveled beside our boat.

finback whale

We ended our trip with views of a third finback whale and a pair of humpback whales. One whale in the pair of humpbacks is named Etch-a-Sketch. The two humpbacks passed right down the right side of our boat, both whales fluking out and showing their beautiful tails. It was a great ending to a great two-species trip.

humpback whale traveling

Etch-a-sketch and friend