We were able to spot the whales pretty quickly on this trip once we got to Stellwagen bank. Where there were plenty of whales in the area, they were not as active as they sometimes are and so we were very lucky when we came upon Ganeesh and her calf from this year. As the calf has to surface more often than it's mother does, it meant that we got a chance to see them very regularly return to the surface. We were also lucky to see the calf nursing which we could tell it was doing as it was moving from one side of its mother to another.
The calf became playful and did a tail breach, a small head breach and a flipper roll to the delight of the people on the boat. The calf also surprised us by showing its tail on several of its dives. The markings on the tails of the calves change over their first couple of years and so the calves are not named until they are a couple of years old when their tail patterns have stabilized. As there are less than 20 mother-calf pairs reported this season, we were very lucky to see Ganesh and her beautiful calf.
Several other humpback whales did a surprise breach beside the boat and we saw a trio of humpback whales traveling together. In this trio were Alphorn, Pele and an unknown whales. In addition to a large number of humpback whales we also saw two minke whales on two separate occasions. We got great looks at both animals for they each surfaced very close to our boat.Another great day offshore with amazing looks at very endangered marine animals. The rain held off until close to the end of our trip. But the whales were not bothered by the rain. In fact, the inclement weather seemed to energize the calf who chin breached right next to the boat.
