Some of the whales were changing associations when we first approached, but we followed the group of 6 as they were feeding with several gulls flying overhead. This group contained Owl and calf, Perseid, Nile, Milkweed, and a few others in the area I have yet to identify.  

One had a large amount of new abrasions on its tail stock from a recent injury.  I believe this whale has been monitored over the past week but we were able to get a close look at its wounds.  It was exhibiting normal behavior, even curious at times, and went right under our boat! 

Towards the end the of the trip we saw spinning head breaches from one of the calves!  We had 4 breaches in total, with one majestic breach on our last look!  It was a beautiful, sunny day on the water and thanks to our crew and Captain Nate we were able to remove a balloon from the water as well.

— Laura Cupicha

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Both the 10 am and 2pm trips on this blustery Saturday where filled with excitement and awe at these awesome ocean creatures.

In the morning we headed out towards the southwest corner and were greeted by the fantastic sight 10 whales in our immediate vicinity. Our passengers got amazing looks at Nile, Perseid, Jabiru and her calf, Owl and her calf, and Tornado. A number of unknowns were also seen our much sighting Unknown #17 as well as two whales which did not deem to show us their tails. One of the major things I noticed today was the size difference between these two calves. Owl’s calf is very large at the moment while Jabiru’s calf is still quite tiny. This could mean that Owl’s calf is older or has had the chance to grow faster than Jabiru’s calf. Either way both these animals have tons of energy and I hope to see them for years to come.

This afternoon the southwest corner was not just blustery, it was full on winds which made for difficult but exciting sighting conditions. We found Nile and Perseid traveling together but moved on to group containing Owl and her calf. We weren’t able to identify the other whales but I assume they were probably whales that have been sighted all this week. The calf entertained us with tail breach after tail breach, flipper slapping, and some rolling and swimming underwater. You may see that this little guy has some injuries to its tail that we’ve been monitoring. It’s good to know that these injuries are not keeping it from its calf-ish fun. We moved off towards another whale that was exhibiting beautiful breaches in the distance and I was able to identify Samara, another well-known Stellwagen whale. Samara breached, flipper slapped, and lobtailed for a good 20-25 minutes while we watched. It was the perfect end to another day on Stellwagen Bank.

— Tegan

These whales were displaying lots of close to boat behavior and were, for the most part, consistently making fluking dives though a few out of the group were consistently making non-fluking dives. This group also included a very active calf who turned out to be Owl’s 2015 calf. In addition to Owl and her calf we were able to identify Tornado as a member of this group. Unfortunately, the other two whales were not fluking in our direction, or at all, so we were unable to identify these individuals.

We also had another sizable group in the area that was first being watched by the Whale Watcher. When this vessel left the area we made our way over to this other group. Like the first group, this one was deceptively large and ended up including at least five whales. This group also included a very active calf who breached multiple times. This calf turned out to be Jabiru’s 2015 calf. In addition to Jabiru and her calf were Nile, Perseid, and an unknown whale who we now readily recognize in the field as he/she has been seen so much. We also had two seals visit the Aurora but were unable to get a positive species identification.

On the 3 p.m. trip we again headed out to the Southwest corner but the weather had gotten a bit windier! This not only made it a challenge to spot whales (though luckily we were successful!) but taking photos and staying close to the whales was a bit tougher as well! We initially encountered a mom and calf pair who unfortunately didn’t fluke. This pair wasn’t spending too much time at the surface so we moved on to another group that was in the area.

This second group contained at least six whales who were constantly changing directions, sides of the boat, and associations. It seemed like they were definitely part of one large group! Included in this group was Owl, her calf, and Nile. The rest of the whales were fluking away from the boat, or not at all. However, this entire group displayed a large amount of close to the boat behavior and gave passengers a great view! Owls’ calf also spent much of its time close to the boat and spent much more time on the surface than the adults. We also had another seal visitor!

All in all, a great day out on the bank!

— Annie W, Jess, and Ann

We found the same 12-15 whales scattered through the area and spent most of our time with 6 whales: Nile, Tornado, Perseid, Milkweed, and Jabiru and calf. These adults seemed to be to be possibility doing some deep feeding, especially as the calf spent a lot of time on its own at the surface. We also spotted Owl and her calf in the distance but never got a good look at either of these whales. 

The high winds and waves made it very difficult to track these whales as they dove and surfaced but our large group of adults made a few close passes to the boat and the calf entertained us with nearly 10 minutes of breaching!

Hopefully the seas will get better and the whales stick around for the rest of the weekend.

— Tegan

This morning on the Cetacea, we headed out in the fog and rain in search of whales. We started our search at the Northwest corner and then travelled down the western edge of the bank until we spotted some activity! 

There were quite a few whales in the area today. At first, it seemed like we had happened upon a hot spot, but slowly the activity started to spread out as the fog rolled in. 

We were able to identify Blackbird, who was kickfeeding alone off our starboard side. We also saw a whale named Terrace, a new sighting for this season! Terrace has very distinct flukes because the left fluke is pretty mangled, possibly because of an entanglement. The right fluke is distinct as well, and has a few rakemarks (bite marks from an orca) in the upper corner. 

There were plenty of birds out on the bank today, including a very peculiar northern gannet who hitched a ride with us back to Boston! A similar occurrence happened last season except with a brown booby who seemed a little lost. Our gannet seemed pretty content though, and calmly sat on the bench on the second deck while we whale watched and all the way back to the harbor! Animal control said that the bird should be fine! Hopefully we will see some clearer skies soon!

— Annie Goodenough

We saw a total of 16-20 humpbacks, 5-10 dolphins, and tons of birds. Our first stop was on an unidentified single humpback, taking about 10 minute dives. We then continued south and found a highly productive feeding area. Geometry, Daffodil and an unknown were sharing bubble clouds and giving quite a feeding demonstration.

We were distracted by the large number of breaches occurring in front of us and scattered throughout the horizon line. We moved with the feeding trio towards Blackbird, who was also feeding solo and then came close to boat. All of a sudden Blackbird started repeatedly breaching right off our port bow! There were full spinning head breaches, head breaches, back breaches, and flipper slaps! 

Then we had a wonderful show by 747 who started conducting high lobtails and bringing its fluke high into the air. 747 was also demonstrating perfect formations of bubble clouds right next to our pulpits and the crowd was floored by all of the acrobatic activity and feeding commotion. Geometry, Daffodil and their associate had about 10 little white-sided dolphin escorts swarming around them as they were feeding.  

The large amount of birds in the area definitely helped guests to determine which group of whales to pay attention to next. And there was a large amount of juvenile northern gannets in the area, which was quite a treat to see diving into the water around us and really added to the atmosphere. We were also able to identify Lightening and her calf, who came into the area as we were ending our trip.  It was a windy afternoon on the bank but definitely worth the trip! One passenger said it was “the best day of her life” as she said goodbye on the dock.

— Laura Cupicha and Annie Wolf

We when arrived near the corner, we first spotted the tall blow of a fin whale. We got some great looks of this whale’s chevron pattern (see photo), and while we were observing this whale, another fin whale was swimming nearby.

After spending time with these two fins, we decided to check around for some other activity, and ended up finding a pair of humpback whales. When the first whale of the pair fluked, I was delighted to see that is was Egret, a calf of one of my favorite whales from my whale watching days in Bar Harbor, Siphon. I hadn’t seen this whale since it was a calf, so it was great to see it again! (see photo of fluke). The second, larger whale that wasn’t fluking for us, but it was later ID’ed as Zeppelin. These two appeared to be working together to deep feed today, with Egret diving deeper in the water column while Zeppelin stayed more shallow.

Zeppelin must have been feeding well lately, as she defecated several times at the surface during our trip (see photo of her lifting her fluke to aid in this action!). Compared to Egret, a whale born in 2007, you can definitely see the life-experiences this whale has had. Each time Zeppelin would surface, we could see the white scarring on her mouth, indicative of lots of time bottom feeding for sand lance (Zeppelin appears to be a “righty”). 

Also Zeppelin bears a scar on her dorsal fin (see photo), which was disfigured by an entanglement in a gill net in 1995. Luckily she has still thrived since then (20 years later!). She is the mother of Milkweed, who’s calf we witnessed briefly get entangled last season on our whale watch. Definitely food for thought today when thinking about human impacts.

Laura Howes

Our captain, Jeff asked me if I wanted to stick with these whales or go see what else might be around and I really wanted to be able to identify these whales and they were not being helpful. A few more non-fluking dives and finally I got enough of the fluke to identify Subterranean, a whale first spotted by my colleague Tasia earlier this week. 

Satisfied with an id shot we headed off to explore further and quickly spotted another whale travelling slowly. This whale was taking shallow dives and the near glass calm seas today allowed us to see the trail of fluke prints, slick patches of displaced water created by the animal’s tail, leading in a straight line to some destination unknown. 

It seemed to be heading in the direction of some more blows so in the spirit of discovery we went to see who these whales might be. This time it was a group of 4 humpback whales and I was quickly able to identify 3 of them: Tornado, Echo, and Ventisca. The fourth whale, despite a good picture remains unknown. These three whales are all females, who had calves last year, and in fact I saw Ventisca’s 2014 calf on a trip earlier last month. They are well known and regular visitors to Stellwagen Bank. Echo is the first whale that I have sighted all four seasons that I’ve been working out here and Ventisca is the first whale I ever learned to id. Like many of the whales earlier in the trip this group were taking shallow dives and just travelling along. We got to spend some time for a few surfacing and the captain called that our time was up and we headed back to Boston. It was a wonderful whale watch, spending great quality time with 7 different humpback whales and I’m sure everyone on board was very pleased.

As we headed west we started to spot some more whales in the area and even a small group of feeding humpback whales. On the way out to Stellwagen, our captain had spoken to a friend on one of the tugboats heading down from Portland who said he’d seen some feeding whales. We figured this had been a group of four but boy were we wrong. Our captain figured we had just enough time to swing by these feeding whales and get some additional looks. Suddenly there were 16 whales in small groups kick feeding and lunging all around us! 

We stayed between two pairs – Glo-stick and Pleats, and Triton an Reaper – who gave awesome kick feeding action of either side of the boat before rising open mouthed to the surface to be mobbed by the hundreds of gulls. It was a sight to behold! Kick feeding, when the whale slams its powerful peduncle on the surface of the water, is an amazing and dynamic behavior to watch, especially Glo-stick’s particularly “flippy” style.

At last we really did have to leave and head home but it had been an excellent trip with 20-22 humpback whales and 4-7 minke whales and hundreds of sea birds and tons of fun!

— Tegan

Despite such setbacks, Mars has continued to produce a healthy and resilient line of offspring (more on that later) and is actually mother to one of our local favorites. If you guessed Nile, you are correct! Mars spent her morning fishing for sand lance with bubbles and powerful surface lunges! We had great views of the her enormous throat grooves which function to maximize the volume of water she can filter, making these energetically costly lunges worth her while.

Nearby, we had a feisty juvenile exhibiting a behavior that I sometimes call (though it’s definitely not scientifically termed) breach lunging (see photo). This little guy could have easily been mistaken as a calf had he/she not been displaying grown up whale feeding behavior. The one-sided facial scarring was also a give-away as it is evidence of bottom side-rolling, another grown up whale feeding behavior. That being said, we saw our fair share of calves rocking fresh facial scars towards the end of last season, likely from mirroring the behavior of their mothers’ feeding, maybe even catching a fish or two in the process.

We also had a set of humpbacks displaying synchronized lunges who put on quite a show for us! One of these individuals showed fresh injuries on its tail stock right behind its dorsal fin. Born last year to Lichen, it is this juvenile’s first season alone on the feeding grounds. Most of these young, returning whales will pick up battle scars as they learn the ropes in this multifunctional, shared habitat. Though I have an idea, it’s unclear as to what specifically caused these injuries.

While we had awesome humpback activity this trip, I can’t forget to mention the gorgeous skim-feeding sei whales we enjoyed yet again Sunday morning. In total, there were seven to eight of these sei whales in the mix with these humpbacks. At one point we found ourselves in a situation I like to call whale soup! No complaints here. That is a dream come true for most whale watchers!

By the afternoon, the sei whales had moved on to brighter pastures (AKA thicker copepod patches). Nonetheless, we found humpbacks aplenty, and many of these were now kick-feeding. Tornado, Strike and Putter were among these humpbacks. We had a lot of fun watching this feeding activity as each whale worked the bait in different ways.

Putter’s behavior was extra exciting to observe as he lifted almost half of his body perfectly vertical out of the water with each kick (see photo). This gave us a clear view of his genital slits reaffirming what we already knew, that he is of course male! Being another offspring of Mars’s and half-brother to Nile, seeing Putter brings us back to the subject of Mars’ matriline. It’s amazing how many generations scientists have been able to track and learn from over the past 40 years. To learn more about this matriline and the anthropogenic threats they have resiliently faced, follow this link to NOAA's page about Nile. 

— Tasia Blough

After spending some time with these whales we encountered a single humpback whale. While this whale turned out to be Sundown he/she wasn’t surfacing consistently and there was more activity in the distance so we ended up leaving. Doing so allowed us to follow a group of three humpback whales who spent the rest of the trip feeding, fluking, and changing association with each other. 

These whales, who turned out to be Thumper, Mars and Zeppelin, exhibited some great open mouth feeding giving our passengers a fantastic look at their baleen. Additionally, these whales consistently surfaced close to the boat and even kick fed a few times. While we spent the majority of our time with these three there were other humpbacks, minkes and seis close by and in the distance.

The 2 p.m. trip started out similarly to the earlier trip though we headed out further north to help alleviate the 3 ft swell that hadn’t yet abated. Barely an hour into the trip we encountered another set of sei whales. These whales were very surface active and were consistently lunge and skim feeding and gave passengers a great look at their narrower rostrum and shorter baleen (compared to humpbacks). 

These whales slowed down after some time and we decided to move on to a single unidentified whale in the distance. This animal was a T5 (all black) but unfortunately didn’t give us a great look at his/her fluke. However, there were plenty of whales in the area and we were able to then follow a group of two who turned out to be Falcon and another unidentified whale. These two spent little time on the surface so we moved on to another single whale, Thumper from earlier, and then a group of two whales. This second group of two included Etch-a-Sketch and another unidentified humpback. 

Lastly, we settled with a group of three that included a mother and calf pair. The calf was very active and rolled multiple times sticking his/her pectoral fins out of the water, kicked, and stuck its tail in the air. Unfortunately, neither mom nor the other whale with this calf fluked.

All in all, it was another wonderful, although chilly!, day out on Stellwagen.

— Annie, Rich, Sam, and Meaghan-Elizabeth