Today on board the Asteria for the 10am whale watch, we traveled towards the southwest corner of the bank. As we approached the bank, we started seeing blows a little further north. As we got closer, we quickly realized that there were humpback whales in EVERY direction!

Pectoral slap

Open-mouth feeding

We believe that there were 20-25 whales all within 2 miles from another. Even from a distance we could tell that almost all the whales in the area were feeding. We saw kick feeding, bubble clouds, and open mouths everywhere. First, we spent some time with Pleats, who was kick feeding and bubble net feeding next to the boat on the port side. On the starboard side Nile and her calf made a quick appearance. After a few minutes we slowly moved forward and saw Aswan and Tear.

Breach!

The pair surprised us with multiple breaches! Passengers were ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the high volume of activity. Next we moved even further north to multiple groups of humpbacks that were feeding together. At one point 5 humpbacks surfaced together with mouths wide open. It was phenomenal.

Four open mouths

Identifications for the trip included Nile, Nile 2014 Calf, Pleats, Scratch, Perseid, Perseid 2014 Calf, Aswan, Colt, Salt, Epsom, Apex, Tear, Habenero, Milkweed, Milkweed 2014 Calf, and Rapier 2009 Calf. We saw breaching, pectoral slapping, tail lobs, bubble feeding, and open mouth feeding. It was an awesome trip on the bank.

— Hannah and Sophie