9 am trip:
We headed to the southwest corner, where we’ve been watching
whales for about a week. We came
across a trio of humpbacks traveling together—Jupiter, Snowslide & Mend. The three dove right next to us,
raising their tails high out of the water. North of the trio, we could see some whitewater and headed
to explore what was creating it.
A humpback whale named Draco (14 year old male) was
breaching, jumping right out of the water. He breached
over and over and over, full breaches, chin breaches, tail breaches. He then began flipper slapping and lob
tailing. He showed us every aerial behavior possible! Some of his breaches were so high, he was almost completely
out of the water. We watched him
doing aerial displays for over 30 minutes. Most interestingly, we don’t know why whales do this—maybe
to communicate, maybe to play, maybe it’s just fun, we don’t know.
With time running out, we headed south, passing a few minke
whales—the smallest of the baleen whales seen on Stellwagen Bank. We ended with great looks at an
associated pair, Eruption and Pele. These two whales have spent quite a bit of
time associated over the last two weeks.
2pm
We headed back to the southwest corner and spent some time
with Eruption and Pele, who were joined by Bounce. Interestingly, when this happened (Bounce joining the pair)
we had one full breach. It’s
called breaching when the whale jumps out of the water, sometimes throwing just
the tail or head, but sometimes the entire body. Occassionally, when associations (groups of humpbacks) join
or separated, it is ‘marked’ by such aerial displays. This trio remained together the entire time we were
offshore, and appeared to be deep feeding.
Nearby, Jupiter, snowslide &
mend remained associated, also indicating some deep feeding behavior. The trios kept passing each other, but
all whales stayed in their respective associations.
A 7th humpback moved in, Northstar. Northstar never joined the associated
whales and remained fairly low profile, not surfacing for any extended period
of time or too close to the boats or other whales.
Minke whales were charging all through the area, at one time
6 or more could be seen creating a white push as they charged near the surface.
Birds today, included: Wilson’s Storm Petrels, sooty & greater
shearwaters, laughing and herring gulls, and terns.
Another amazing day of whale watching!!
11 am Trip - Dianne:
11 am Trip - Dianne:
This morning started with what felt like just a touch of fall
in the air, especially after the heat wave we had last week. It was sunny
with one-foot seas and perfect visibility as we headed to the southwest corner
of Stellwagen Bank.
After a beautiful ride to the Bank we spotted a blow,
splashes indicating a breaching whale and a whale laying on its back and
flipper slapping. We began to watch the whale that was breaching
repeatedly. I have never before experienced a whale that breached as many
times as our whale did!
It breached at least forty times and must have been worn out
by the time it was done! Our passengers were thrilled and awed by the
size and energy of this beautiful animal. At that point we had humpbacks
all around the boat and the occasional minke whale surfacing.
We left our breacher and began to watch a group of two
whales feeding deep that were soon joined by a third. I have been able to
positively identify our breaching whale, with many thanks for the perfect tail
shot taken by Art Kostapapas. It was Snowslide! Thank you so much
for your generosity Art!
It was a wondrous and magical day and many thanks to
Snowslide too! I will update this blog after I study the other tail shots
of the whales seen at the end of the trip.
