7/31/15

Log for July 31, 2015

On Friday aboard the Asteria with Captain Deb-the whales had moved a bit closer and were in the middle of Stellwagen Bank! Not only had they moved further north but soon after we left the harbor we spotted a minke whale travelling south. This whale travelled close to the surface for a couple of minutes. Since it was early on in the trip I hadn’t yet talked to passengers about how to spot for whales-watching this minke whale gave them a great example of what they should look for!


After leaving this minke whale we travelled further east and came across Samara and Sanchal travelling together. Sanchal is actually the Hindi word for black salt. Based on this name, and quick check to confirm on our family tree, we were able to determine that Sanchal is Salt’s 2008 calf. It was great to see one of her offspring on the bank-a first for me! These two were travelling but also spent some time very close to the boat. At one point Samara surfaced off the starboard pulpit and Sanchal off the port!


Our next pair was steadily travelling Northeast and never fluked. These two were travelling about three knots in a pretty straight line-I wonder what they were headed for! We’re still working on identifying this pair but it was great to be able to show passengers two pairs of whales displaying such different behaviors.

— Annie W, Connie, and Annie T

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