July 10, 2012 Whale Watches

9 am and 2 pm Whale Watches - Tammy

9 am trip: written by NECWA intern Carly Hepburn

We had an amazing day out on Stellwagen Bank today with beautiful weather and were able to see a finback whale, minke whales, Atlantic white-sided dolphins, and humpback whales!  We travelled to the southeastern edge of Stellwagen Bank, which was a little bit farther than usual and it definitely paid off.  We passed by our first two sightings a finback whale, and minke whale because we knew we had humpback whales up ahead of us.  

Our first sighting of humpback whales was a group of two which included a whale named Pox. There were quite a few whales in this area and we didn’t spend too much time with Pox, but we got to see a beautiful fluke out dive from this whale.  

Next we saw a calf by itself, but the calf soon joined its mother, a whale named Abrasion. Travelling with Abrasion and calf was an adult humpback named Stub as well as another smaller humpback. We had gorgeous looks at these four whales as they came right over to our boat. As we were watching this group of humpback whales, minke whales were continuously passing us (about 5-6).  

After leaving this grow, we saw two more humpback whales, including a whale named Rocker, and at the same time another pair of humpbacks were in our view that included a whale named Barb.  After leaving this area, we observed a group of three humpback whales using a bubble net to feed.

Ventisca

The whales were lunge feeding at the surface which was followed by straining where the whale pushes the water out of their mouth.  Shortly, more humpbacks joined this trio and things were really picking up. We ended up with 5 to 6 were humpback whales including Rocker, Stub, Entropy, Crown and Ventisca. To many passengers’ delight, we also saw 10 to 15 Atlantic white-sided dolphins as we made our way back to Plymouth. What a great way to end our trip offshore!

2 pm trip: written by NECWA intern Kelsey Pinkham

We couldn’t have asked for better weather for this afternoon’s whale watch! With low wind speeds, a clear sunny sky, and whales at every angle, what a dream! We had sightings of humpback whales, minke whales and Atlantic white-sided dolphins and gray seals. The humpback whales were not too active this afternoon. We got to see some flukes, but there was a lot of logging. 

Logging is a resting behavior that whales exhibit at the surface. While the whales were resting a lot, we had some beautiful looks at the whales’ bodies as they spent a lot of time on the surface.   We identified quite a few humpback whales on today’s trip. We had Pox, Barb, Snare, Ventisca, Milkweed, Stub and the famous Salt with us today!

Salt is the most famous humpback whale in the world.  She was first seen in 1976 and was the first humpback to be given a name. Not only is Salt a mother of 12 calves, but she is also a great grandmother! It was very exciting to see Salt today as she has not been seen much this season so far.

We also had sightings of seals and several species of seabirds, including Wilson’s storm petrels, laughing gulls, greater shearwaters, sooty shearwaters, laughing gulls and common terns. Another beautiful afternoon on the water!