Our time was winding down and we were hoping to get one last look when all of a sudden one of the finbacks popped up right in front of the boat. Ordinarily, a whale popping up in front of the boat would be exciting on its own, but this look was even more amazing because the whale had lunged on its side! We almost never get to see the tail of a finback whale, but today we saw half of the fluke as the whale lingered on its side. We were in the right place at the right time to get another amazing look at the same behavior along our starboard side. This time the whale’s white belly was facing us for this rare and exciting sight! 

The last 2 minutes of this whale watch had not only some of my personal best sightings of the season so far, but also the best sightings I’ve ever had of a finback whale!

Today was awesome!

— Annie Goodenough

We first slowed the boat to investigate a fin that broke the surface of the water. We discovered it was a minke whale, but soon found a fin whale that we suspected to be nearby. After realizing this whale was in the area, it snuck up on us with the next sighting just yards away from the starboard stern! We could clearly see the glowing green caused by the white color of the lower jaw under the screen of plankton in the water. Captain Billy watched where this whale as well as the two minkes we spotted swam, and noticed a circular pattern in one small area. Maybe chasing a large school of fish?

The afternoon brought us right back to the same whales- and we had great looks again. This time the whales moved a bit more erratically, and traveled for longer distances between dives than during our earlier time with them. One sighting of 16BP16’s left side revealed an interesting scar on its flank (see photo). The other naturalists and I hypothesized about what could have possibly caused it, but have yet to determine the origin. 

Our ride home brought us dramatic views of the sunset against the lingering storm clouds- what a beautiful evening!

— Laura Lilly

We were able to get some lovely looks at both of these individuals before continuing south to the tip of Cape Cod where we picked up a single juvenile humpback whale.  This individual was very unpredictable with its surfacings, coming up in all directions and at various distances away.  At one point we were within about a half mile of the beach, and the whale on the edge of 100 feet and 30 feet of water.  Our passengers got to spend some time on Cape Cod without even having to deal with the traffic!  

We got some great looks at this young humpback, which showed signs of a recent entanglement and was also quite possibly the same individual that was recently disentangled by the Marine Animal Entanglement Response team. Watch a video from a GoPro of the team at work!  Keep in mind that this team is comprised of highly trained individuals and work under special government permits to help these animals. If you ever come across a marine animal in distress, the best thing to do is to report it to the local authorities so that the proper people can come out and help.  Out in Stellwagen, the best way to do that is to contact the MAER’s hotline at 1-800-900-3622, or radio the coastguard on VHF channel 16.

We came back into Boston with a beautiful sunset behind the city!

— Heidi and Annie

***

We first spend time with 16BP08 who has a very unique dorsal fin with two distinct clips. This whale was travelling randomly around the area and took mostly 5-6 minute dives. This whale spent plenty of time at the surface catching its breath between dives, and passengers were excited to catch a glimpse at the whale’s chevron along its right side. 

We decided to check out the other whales in the area and were able to identify 16BP07 and 16BP13 as well! These two were surfacing at almost the same time, but usually a few hundred yards away from each other. I’d be curious to know if they were vocalizing at all below the surface to coordinate their surfacings. Upon closer inspection of my photos of 16BP13, you can make out his open eye just below the surface (see photo)!

— Annie

What was remarkable today was the unusually close and clear looks at both of these whales. Minke whales are known to be somewhat erratic and unpredictable with their movements, so it was great to be able to spend the time observing this interesting individual. With their quick movements, it is easy to pass them by on our trips without closely noticing differences between them, as slight or as obvious as they may be. 

Hopefully this whale will remain in the area throughout the season and allow for more observation.

— Tasia and Laura

This animal appeared to be foraging along the edge of a small seamount west of the bank. Interestingly, we observed huge schools of mackerel (see photo), but it wasn’t clear whether or not this fin whale was feeding on these schooling fish. 

We were approached by a second fin whale that made it very clear by the scat it left at the surface that it was certainly feeding, but we observed no active surface feeding behavior despite the large schools of mackerel in the area. On what was supposed to be our last looks of our fin whales, one of these animals surfaced right next to the boat, surprising everyone on board with a powerful exhalation! Lorna, Kelsey and I squealed with excitement like little girls at such a close approach by this gorgeous animal! As Lorna then pointed out, you know you’re seeing something really special when your naturalists are freaking out (which we were)!

We spent our afternoon trip with this same fin whale as it appeared to be searching the area, traveling back and forth just south of the underwater hill where it foraged on our morning trip. Thanks to Captain Earl, we were able to have great views of this behemoth despite its unpredictable surfacings. 

We noticed two other fin whales enter the area as the bird activity began heating up this afternoon. Since birds often feed on the same food as whales, we hope this is a sign of more whales to come in the days ahead!

— Tasia

Upon photographing the markings and dorsal fin of this whale, we realized it was 16BP04, the same fin whale observed on the previous day as well as earlier in the season. The fin whale continued to swim in a somewhat erratic fashion, leaving us guessing as to where it would return to the surface after each dive.

After observing our friend 16BP04 for a while, we noticed another fin whale in the distance. We began to approach closer, however our initial fin whale remained close by and surfaced frequently, while the second spent more time beneath the depths. We decided to stay with our initial mysticete, who began swimming in semi-circular patterns, indicating feeding. As we began to wrap up our day on Stellwagen, bait began to bubble just yards away from the bow of the Cetacea, and suddenly the fin whale lunged upward in complete protest to the laws of gravity. We could see the ventral pleats fully expanded as the whale slowly submerged and circled around for more.

May we be graced with legions of lofty leviathans in the days to come!

— Laura L & Rich

The water was calm so we could very easily see the whale’s footprints as it made semi-circles beneath the surface, perhaps corralling fish! 

We happened upon a large minke whale about halfway through the trip, and were even able to see this whales minke mittens on its pectoral flippers at it swam along our starboard side! In true minke form, this whale disappeared for the rest of the trip. Regardless we enjoyed sightings of the finbacks in the area! There was a second finback who was quite a bit larger who was taking longer more sporadic dives. 

On the way home we spotted a harbor seal! All in all it was a beautiful day on the water.

— Annie & Laura

The glassy seas gave us nice looks of this whale, and we could easily observe Pinch’s distinct flank – which has some interesting speckled white scars alongside its body (as well as a notch in front of its dorsal fin). I’m unsure of what these marking could be from, but as far we could tell, this whale appeared healthy and it’s skin-condition and/or skin-scarring doesn’t seem to effect it.

After spending time with this humpback, we decided to head a little further east where the Salacia had been. On our trek further east, we start to see some splashing for a distant lobtailing/tail breaching whale, as well as a smaller whale rolling around. We had heard reports from another whale watch about a humpback mom/calf pair, so we were hopeful to see who this pair might be. As we approached closer, we were completely surprised to find that this was a mother and calf North Atlantic right whale pair!  

Though our encounter was brief (regulations require boats to stay 500 yards away, so we did not stay with this pair – please note that our photos are zoomed-in and cropped), it was happy moment to get to observe a new right whale calf. 

Recently a right whale calf was found dead off the coast of Cape Cod. Preliminary results of the animals autopsy (known as a necropsy) found several large propeller wounds suggesting a boat strike likely before death. Right whales face many threats, so I am hopeful this calf today has a brighter future in the years to come. If you observe closely on the photo of the mom and calf synchronized diving, you can actually see an entanglement scar on the calf’s tailstock, which is the other huge threat large whales face in the Gulf of Maine.

Our trip ended with a sighting of a fin whale, making it a four species marine mammal day! We also spotted common loons and northern gannets out on the bank.

— Laura

The 10am whale watch headed out on board the Salacia to the middle part of Stellwagen Bank and found 4-5 fin whales scattered through the area. One of the hardest parts of watching fin whales is how difficult it is to tell individuals apart but they do have natural markings – the chevron patch just above the shoulder blade and scars and nicks along the dorsal fin. 

One of the whales that featured heavily in all of today’s trips is an individual that I know that I saw back in 2014 as well. The highlight of the morning’s trip by far was getting great looks at a fin whale mother and her calf. We don’t see many fin whale calves on Stellwagen Bank so every sighting is always very special. The 2pm whale watch headed out to the same area and again found around 4-5 fin whales scattered through the area. 

We spent some time with two individuals with quite distinct dorsal fin scars which will aid in keeping track of when we see these animals in the future. The wind seemed to pick up during these trip and the whales’ surface intervals, the time at the surface between dives, decreased dramatically to even just a breath or two between long dives. While frustrating for the whale watcher it’s an amazing display of these animals’ breath holding abilities. As ever it was a fantastic day on the water with these amazing whales.

— Tegan

***

Our first sightings of humpbacks were the splashes of three whales BREACHING in the distance! As we approached they slowed down and began to travel (amidst some logging humpbacks), and I identified this trio as Bayou, Glo-Stick, and Osprey. Bayou is very notable from her unfortunate propeller wound, missing half her fluke (see photo). Glo-Stick is also a reminder of the problem of ship strike for whales – her grandmother Istar was found dead a few years ago due to a likely ship strike off the coast of Long Island.

After spending time with this trio, we moved on to some other humpbacks, Basin and an unknown humpback that swam near our boat briefly. This mystery humpback that briefly joined Basin never actually exhaled and the surface, but hung just below the water near our boat (see photo).

The spectacular finale to our trip today was two kick feeding humpbacks, Wyoming and Tracer. After a period of quiet calm seas, it was exciting to see these whales do some high tail thrashing, and then join briefly to form a huge bubble net and come open mouth lunge feeding at the surface (see photo).

Another great day on the bank!

— Laura

Humpbacks, fin whales, and dolphins alike feasted their hearts out on a plethora of sand lance as birds hovered overhead, hopeful to snag some scraps. Animals of all sizes competed for their catch, overlapping in time and space, so much so that, at one point, I thought a fin whale had created a bubble net! 

We spotted a few familiar flukes among the humpbacks including Viking, Basin, and Pinch. We observed fin whales lunging powerfully across the water’s surface alongside kick feeding and bubble netting humpbacks. All the while, dolphins weaved in and out of the chaos appearing carefree and majestic as always.

Guests were treated to some exceptional views into the mouths of humpback whales today, an opportunity not had by many. On three occasions a trio of humpbacks unexpectedly lunged nearly into the side of the boat without the usual bubble net precursor. 

I suspected that perhaps the fish were just beneath the boat, and Captain Matt kept us floating along as we waited for the humpbacks to pounce on their prey beneath us. We cruised back to Boston across glassy calm waters while enjoying one of our first warm spring days here in New England!

— Tasia