On Sunday's 12pm whale watch aboard the Cetacea we headed back south in search of the whales from the day before. After searching a bit in the spot we found them yesterday, we continued further south past the SE corner, and suddenly saw some splashing in the distance of a humpback lobtailing.

The whale watch went far across the bank, you can see Provincetown in the distance

When we caught up to the group, we found Nile, Freckles and calf traveling together. All three were taking moderate and shallow dives (not always fluking) and traveling slowly. Freckles was diving deeper of the three, while Nile and the calf stayed more at the surface.

Nile, Freckles and her calf

After watching the trio subsurface deep feed/travel awhile, Nile unexpectedly surprised us with a big lobtail! Other than that bit of activity she didn’t fluke as much and began logging and stretching.

Nile's fluke is evident during her lobtail

Her big ol' lobtail

Freckle’s calf also appeared to need some rest after all the activity, and began to take a 10-minute nap at the surface. We left the calf resting and watched Freckles and Nile fluke as we made our way back home to Boston.

This is the last weekend for the New England Aquarium Whale Watch. Don't miss out on this action. Find links to buy tickets through our partners at Boston Harbor Cruises we'll see you on board! 

The New England Aquarium Whale Watch will continue to run noon excursions on weekends in November as long as the whales and the weather oblige. And so far, both have been pretty fantastic! If you're interested in joining us, check the website as the weekend approaches. You'll find links to where you can buy your tickets online through our partners at Boston Harbor Cruises. We hope to see you! 

We had quite the trip today on the Cetacea. Probably one of my favorites this season!

Our first marine mammal sighting yesterday was a harbor seal on the way out of the harbor. A short while after we approached the southern edge of Stellwagen, we spotted a large scattered pod of 200-300 common dolphins. With such great sighting conditions and calm seas, we were able to get quite the visual of the size of the pod. Passengers got a treat as a some of these dolphins were bow riding and circling our boat—seen very clearly through the water! We even observed some porpoising in the distance.









After spending some time with the dolphins, we decided to continue searching for whales, and we weren’t let down! We found five scattered humpback whales deep and bubble feeding in the area. We first found Freckles and calf, bubble feeding again, but this time deeper in the water column.

Freckles and calf

A tell-tale sign of bubble feeding

Then suddenly we were surprised by two FULL breaches by Freckles calf, and two more flipper/half breaches shortly after!

The breach was great surprise.

It was fun to see the calf be a bit playful before the pair started to deep feed again.

We then moved onto another pair that had been in the distance, which turned out to be Columbia and her 2013 calf deep feeding. This is our first sighting of this pair this season, and interesting to note that both Freckles and Columbia were some of regulars last year on Stellwagen. So great to see them with calves this year!

Columbia has an intricate pattern on her fluke – created mostly by the many orca rake marks all over it.

And lastly it wouldn’t be a whale watch on Stellwagen without seeing Nile – our last look of the day was of a plump Nile fluking in the sunlight.

Good ol' Nile

We also passed a minke on the way home totaling our marine mammal species to four for the day. Also, for birds we saw many gannets, scoters, a few great shearwaters, and of special note a Pomerine Jaeger.

We also had a nice look at the rising moon at Long Wharf departing from the boat.

Overall a fantastic fall day!

The New England Aquarium Whale Watch will continue to run noon excursions on weekends in November as long as the whales and the weather oblige. And so far, both have been pretty fantastic! If you're interested in joining us, check the website as the weekend approaches. We hope to see you! 

Exciting and surprising day today on the Cetacea! We decided to try our luck on Stellwagen today – and we were certainly rewarded! As many as 6 humpbacks, 4 minkes and hundreds of gannets, shearwaters, and gulls – all in a feeding frenzy!

Feeding on Stellwagen Bank, a great look at the whale's baleen!

Gaping mouth, feeding on Stellwagen Bank

Whales and birds feasting for passengers!

When we arrived on the bank today we found Freckles and calf bubble net feeding, Wizard traveling nearby, and a group of 2 to 3 individuals kick feeding further out east. We also had minkes traveling amidst the feed, and the diving gannets put on quite the show today!

Seabirds diving and feeding

We spent our time today with Freckles and her 2013 calf—our first sighting of the pair on our boats this season. Freckles and calf were working together to bubble feed. Freckles would coordinate the main net and come-up open mouth in the middle, while her calf would lunge a bit alongside the net.

Bubble feeding: note the light green colored bubbles and the gaping mouth in the middle

At times the calf would log for a bit between feedings (almost seeming to rest after trying to keep up with mom). It was exciting and interesting to see this calf learning to bubble feed. Hopefully we’ll see it bubble feeding on its own next season on the bank!

You can see the calf resting on the surface in the picture at right

We left the pair continuing to bubble feed as we headed back to Boston. All of us were thrilled to see so much action today. It was the most bird activity we’ve seen all season, and the most surface bubble feeding we’ve seen since May!

A pair of whales feeding

Today onboard the Cetacea we headed North to Jeffrey’s in chilly wind to the area we spent most of October. Jeffrey’s was quiet again, so we decided to try the NW corner of Stellwagen, and we were able to spot the blow of a fin whale traveling through the area.



This individual was moving around sporadically between terminal dives. But it was nice to find a little bit of life (if even tricky to follow in the chop) on Stellwagen today!