We had another great day out on Stellwagen bank today. We headed to mid-bank and immediately spotted multiple groups of blows including a triple, some duos and a number of single whales, all humpbacks.

Group bubble net feeding

We spent some time with a pair of humpbacks which were bubble net feeding. We then saw a calf breaching multiple times further off in the distance. By the time we got closer to the calf, it’s mother had started to breach as well! This pair turned out to be Tornado and her calf.

Tornado breaches

On the other side of the boat, Rapier was kick-feeding, repeatedly lifting her tail high out of the water. We then spent some time with a group of four whales which were bubble net feeding together before they moved out of the area somewhat. Unfortunately, none of these whales fluked at all, so we were unable to identify them.

Bubble net feeding pair

As these whales left the area we saw another whale flipper slapping up ahead of us. As we approached, we found that it was another mother calf pair, both flipper slapping together. The pair then began to breach, each jumping 2 or 3 times. It was exciting to see the difference in size between the mother and the calf so clearly while they were in the air.

Mother-calf flipper slapping duo

Luckily for us, the mother took a quick dive after some of the breaches, and we were able to identify her as Nile. It’s great to see one of our most familiar whales back in the area!

Nile fluke

As we turned around and headed back towards Boston, we got to see a few more breaches from Tornado and her calf as well as some breaches and flipper slapping from a solitary whale in the distance. Altogether, there were about 10-18 whales feeding on the bank including Vulture, Glo-Stick, and Aswan. It was certainly an amazing trip!

Danielle