Today aboard the morning expedition we were carried by Captain Deb on the wings of the Asteria for a survey of the Southwest Corner. Our quest for baleen, barnacle, and blubber was brought to fruition with a sighting of two individual fin whales and a minke whale just four miles from Provincetown!
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| Buzzard takes a dive |
Following these brief sightings we headed north to Midbank, and the bustle of our world was muted as we meditated on blows of a familiar nature…we were in the company of the mighty humpback whale.
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| Daffodil |
This discovery turned out to be an association of two humpback whales named Buzzard and Daffodil! These cetaceans seemed so minuscule in comparison to the monolithic fin whales we have kept company through the season. The duo were adhered in movement as Buzzard remained within flipper’s length of Daffodil, immediately following suit on each sounding dive.
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| Flower power! |
These creatures granted us close looks between dives of 2 minutes and were unwavering in their northern heading. We returned to land with a shortage of frowns from our passengers.
— Rich
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The Salacia headed out in a whitecap strewn Stellwagen Bank today due east of Boston in the region of the shipping lanes. We started our day with a large fin whale on the western edge of the bank and then spotted a second fin whale that was along the eastern edge. Having heard of humpbacks in the area we headed north and found two duos of humpback whales!
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| Shuffleboard fluke |
These pairs turned out to be well known whales: Shuffleboard and Buzzard, and Geometry and Daffodil. Geometry is such a well-known whale to us that the humpback model on board the Salacia has even been drawn to look like Geometry!
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| Fluke |
Both pairs were generally moving north and appeared to be working along what looked to be a current or a front where two water bodies came together. We spotted a few bubble clouds but any feeding action that was going on was happening well below the surface. After being bereft of humpback whales for the past couple of weeks it was fantastic to see four humpbacks on Stellwagen. Hopefully this a good sign for the days and weeks to come.
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