This morning on the Aurora’s 10 am whale watch, we went to the northwestern corner of Stellwagen Bank to find a deep feeding humpback whale named Hornbill. Hornbill was taking 4-8 minute dives before surfacing, but stayed up long enough to give passengers good looks.

Hornbill's fluke

We were able to get two nice looks at Hornbill’s fluke before heading home.  Hornbill is a male humpback born in 1977, one of the older known whales documented in the North Atlantic Humpback Whale Catalog.

Sedge's hooked dorsal fin, see more pictures of his abnormal fin

On the Aurora’s 2 pm whale watch, winds picked up quite a bit, and we found a breaching humpback whale near the northwestern corner of Stellwagen Bank! We identified this whale as Sedge. Sedge is a male born in 1988 with a distinct dorsal (a deep scar in the back of the fin is visible from far away).  This scar is most likely from an entanglement in fishing gear. Sedge fully breached 8 to 10 times and there were several chin breaches as well.

It was a special treat and the most breaching I’ve seen yet this season. The last time I saw Sedge on a whale watch was off the coast of Mount Desert Island in Maine.  Maybe Sedge is working his way north!

-- Christine