June 19, 2012 Whale Watches

9 am and 2 pm Whale Watches - Tammy and Michael

9 am trip - Tammy

We had a great morning onboard the Tails of the Sea with sightings of humpback whales, minke and finback whales and a huge basking shark! Our humpback sighting included a mother named Boomerang and her calf of this year. This calf is only a few months old and it was having fun breaching while mom was on long dives; we were treated to spinning head breaches, chin breaches and tail breaches. 

We also had several beautiful looks at finback whales. Finbacks have an asymmetrical pattern on their right sides called the blaze and chevron which we can use to identify individuals. As one finback swam across our bow we had excellent views of this unique coloration. 

Towards the end of our trip we had brief sightings of a couple of minke whales, the smallest baleen whales that we see on Stellwagen Bank. Minkes are much smaller than their humpback or finback cousins, only reaching 20-30 feet in length and they can be quite elusive.  

One of the most exciting parts of our trip was a very close encounter with a huge basking shark! This shark was about 20 feet long and was swimming right next to our boat while feeding. Basking sharks eat plankton by swimming with their mouths open and filtering the plankton using gill rakers, little fine-tooth combs in their gills slits. Everyone had amazing views inside this shark’s mouth as it swam right towards us. This sighting was a small reminder that while whales are incredible animals, there are many other amazing creatures that live in the sea!

Thanks to NECWA intern Brandon Wheaton for the spinning breach photo. Nice job!

2 pm trip - Michael

On today's whale watch, we had to battle some tough weather conditions but we still managed to have a great time out on Stellwagen Bank.  Our first sighting was of a speedy Finback whale, who was doing some substantial sub-surface feeding.  This animal would come up for a sequence of breaths, maybe 3 to 5, and then head down on a much longer dive to chase after the American Sand Lance, the #1 bait fish out on the bank. After we got a couple looks at this individual, we then headed towards two Humpback whales, Boomerang and her new calf.

Both of these animals were very active, coming up to take some breaths and then going down for a deeper dive.  We were able to get some fantastic close up looks as these whales as they swam all around our boat, and while Boomerang spent her time beneath the surface looking for fish, the calf was slightly more playful.  We were even lucky enough to watch the calf roll over at the surface and show us those long rorquals that act like an accordion when these animals take huge gulps of water.  We also got a great look at the calf's long pectoral flippers that help it to steer through the water.