On our first trip, we had 3-4 scattered groups of kick-feeding humpbacks! We chose to spend our time with Falcon, Daffodil, Tornado, Lobo and Sundown who stayed together kick-feeding and bubble-netting next to one another throughout the entire trip. Guests had the amazing opportunity to observe powerful surface lunges as these whales filtered sand lance out of the water.

This afternoon we still had whales kick-feeding in the area, one of which was Sundown. We also had a few whales bubble-net feeding together. Daffodil, Aswan, Tornado and Streamer spent a good amount of time bubble netting while dolphins fed on the fish that got away. A whale named Canine swam through the area at one point throughout this feeding along with a couple fin and minke whales.

We had a number of harbor porpoise sightings on both trips today which can often go unnoticed due to their small size and rapid surfacing. Luckily the sea conditions were super calm today, which allowed us to notice even minor disturbances in the water.

Among the many minke and fin whale sightings today, we suspected a couple of them to have been sei whales, a species that is occasionally seen in the Stellwagen Bank area around this time of year. Unfortunately, we were unable to get close enough to these animals to be certain of the species.

In conclusion, we had our Stellwagen Bank Sanctuary Seabird Stewards on board today which always adds to the excitement of our trips. Among their many seabird sightings, I can say for certain they were most excited about a group of common murres they spotted, not to mention the amazing whale activity observed! Today was definitely a day of cross-species feeding frenzies!

— Tasia Blough