Passengers on the Aurora had a beautiful day out on the water. We headed up to our “usual” place by Cape Ann to find male humpback Satula.

Satula taking a dive

He was taking pretty short dives (2-3 minutes) while deep feeding using some underwater bubble clouds. We got a few looks at him surfacing filtering water out of his mouth, and many great looks at his tail.

We also saw two minkes, as well as some Northern gannets. Seeing the whales feed so actively here over the past week or so gives us hope of some more whales showing up soon!

--Orla

We had a morning of rough seas this morning without any sightings. But on the Cetacea’s 2 pm trip the seas had calmed down and we headed back up to the area that the Aurora had been, where we also found Pinball.

Pinball takes a dive right alongside of us.

We saw Pinball taking short dives and filter feeding, coming up close to us on numerous occasions—one time right in-between our pulpits! Pinball seemed to be feeding on bait that was right below us as she would surface on either side of us and always make a U-turn to dive underneath the Cetacea.

--Orla

This morning on the Asteria we headed out to the northwest corner of Stellwagen Bank, where we spent time with two humpbacks, Shuffleboard and Satula. We started out getting looks at Shuffleboard, who was feeding under the surface. After a bit she decided to head a different direction and Satula decided to head in our direction, so we finished up getting some nice looks at his tail.

Shuffleboard and Venom surface feeding together

On the afternoon trip aboard the Cetacea we headed out to the same area, where the activity had heated up a little. We spent most of our time with Shuffleboard again, as well as female humpback Venom. Venom is an easily identified whale as she is missing part of her right fluke. These two whales started to feed more actively using bubble clouds, and even joined together twice two come up through the bubble cloud with open mouths! Other whales that were in the area were Satula and Boomerang.

-- Orla

See what happened on today's noon trip!

Today on the Aurora we headed out to the northwest corner of Stellwagen Bank. We started out trying to get a look at Shuffleboard, who was taking very long dives.

Shuffleboard

Luckily, we saw a breach in the distance and headed over to two other humpback whales. Boomerang, an adult female, breached two more times as we approached her, and another adult humpback, Satula, was in the area as well.

Boomerang

Satula—his name means “Saddle” and refers to the unique shape left on his back after losing his dorsal fin

We got several close looks at both humpbacks, as well as two minkes, affording the passengers excellent opportunities to see the differences between not only different species of whales, but how individual humpbacks look distinct from each other as well.

-- Orla

We headed north-east out of Boston on the Aurora today to the waters near Cape Anne. There we were able to get great looks at a humpback whale, Pinball. Pinball, who is a female humback born in 1989, was using the same low bubble clouds to feed that we’ve been seeing over the past few days—lunging below the surface out of sight, but leaving a cloud of bubbles at the surface.

Pinball’s unique and asymmetrical fluke pattern

We also saw some lunge feeding minke whales in the distance. Overall the day was a great respite from the heat on land, and a perfect opportunity to see some close up whale behavior.

--Orla 

We were able to find several whales on the Asteria today, despite the unexpectedly windy weather. There were three to four humpbacks and one minke whale in the area.


We spent most of our time with Shuffleboard, a humpback whale first seen in 2008. Shuffleboard was taking very short dives and using low bubble clouds to feed underneath the water, coming up to the surface regularly and giving us great looks at its tail while diving.

--Orla

The Asteria had a great day on the water. The seas were calm, and there were many Northern gannets as well as several different species of gulls in the area. Passengers enjoyed seeing several species of whale—while we spent most of our time with a humpback, there was a fin whale traveling not too far off from us most of the time, and a minke whale popped up right next to our humpback, and close to the boat.

Springboard's fluke

Our humpback whale was female Springboard, who was first seen in 1997. Springboard was feeding using a low bubble cloud, lunging below the water out of sight, but surfacing regularly and fairly close to our boat.

--Orla

Today on the Aurora we did not find any whales. We searched the northern portion of Stellwagen bank, as well as some waters northeast of the bank. We did see some a few Northern gannets, and a lone Manx shearwater—hopefully a portent of some better fish productivity and whale sightings in our future.

--Orla