This morning we headed about 42 miles Southeast to the eastern edge of Stellwagen Bank! After searching around quite a bit we found a minke whale. After watching this minke for a little bit, we were able to get some looks at a humpback whale in the area. We really lucked out this trip because the humpback turned out to be, the one and only, COLT!

Cold wows passengers with a swim by

Colt is a famous whale on Stellwagen for being a particularly curious whale and today was no exception! Our first look at Colt was literally right along the side of our boat! The whale ducked underneath and then surfaced again on the other side.

Curious Colt

Every time this whale was up at the surface, we had no problem finding it because it surfaced SO close! It was an extremely unique experience spending time with this very curious humpback!

Rainbow blow by Colt

This afternoon we decided to go to an area a bit closer to Boston. We ended up travelling along the north shore up to Jeffrey’s Ledge. While in this area there were 5-6 humpbacks. We spent time with Nike, Slingshot and Gladiator, which are all whales that I have never seen before!

Gladiator

Slingshot

Nike

It’s great adding new flukes to my memory! These whales were joining and splitting quite a bit in the beginning of our trip, but by the end we spent most of our time with Gladiator and Slingshot who were taking relatively short 3-4 minute dives moving around randomly, likely subsurface feeding.


We had a gorgeous day out on the water with nearly, flat-calm seas, clear skies and awesome whales!

— Annie G.

***

Today on board the Asteria for the 12pm whale watch we traveled to the northern portion of Stellwagen Bank. On our way to the bank we had multiple quick sightings of some minke whales and even a Mola mola (or ocean sunfish).

Mola mola | Photo from 9-27-14

With no luck on the bank, we traveled out past Thacher’s Island to continue our search for whales. After some solid searching, Kirsten, our Research and Education Intern on board, spotted a blow in the distance. We got closer to observe this humpback whale and quickly recognized it as Orbit.

Hazy view of Twin Lights

We haven’t seen this familiar humpback since the beginning of our season. She was taking some long 9-10 minute dives and fluking consistently. Towards the end of our time with her, she began doing some shorter 4 minute dives which was nice, especially for passengers.

Orbit's fluke

Orbit's dorsal fin

Also off in the distance, about ½ mile away, we spotted 2 more humpbacks. It was Pleats and Nike! This pair was also taking some longer dives, 5-8 minutes, and fluking consistently. After leaving the bank, on our way home, we had a quick sighting of a pair of finback whales that were traveling together. Overall, it was a great trip on the bank.

Today was my last trip for this season, so I’d like to give a quick shout out and thank you to everyone who made this whale season so enjoyable. Thanks and have a great rest of the season!

Until next year — Hannah P