After a few days of rough seas, we were so happy to head out to Stellwagen on this beautiful Saturday. We started our search around mid-bank and then turned south towards the southwest corner.

Rainbow!

We spotted a whale in the distance and approached it slowly. This whale turned out to be a very elusive finback whale. After the whale surfaced far in the distance, we decided to continue a bit further to a few other blows in the area.

Warrior's fluke

There were 7 humpbacks in the area today and we spent the bulk of our trip watching a trio including Warrior, Mars, and Spike. We were amused by the combined ferocity of names today because Mars is the Roman God of war! These three were taking about 5 minute dives and surfaced several times close to the boat. Towards the end of our trip, the group surfaced on the starboard side, travelled across the bow and then gave then passengers super close looks as they continued to swim along the port side. It felt like we were being circled by these humpbacks. Perhaps they were curious of our presence!

Note the white entanglement scars

One of the humpbacks, Mars, has a pretty mangled fluke. It appears as though this individual has been entangled at least once before. Around the tailstock there is deep scar, and around the left fluke there is a bunch of scar tissue and a hunk missing from the trailing edge.

Unknown whale fluke

There was plenty of fishing gear in the area today to remind us that entanglements are all too common an occurrence. Either way, it was a beautiful day out on the water and we’re happy to see some new individuals in the area!

— Annie G

***

Later on the 12:00 whale watch we had our first wildlife sighting right by the South Boston Fish Pier, a harbor seal. We had left the dock only a few minutes prior and we stopped to give passengers a great look at this little creature. We saw a second near Spectacle Island as well.

Mars' troubling entanglement scars Learn about recent right whale entanglement from Aquarium researchers

We traveled out to the southwest corner of Stellwagen and found a handful of blows in the area.  We followed Rattan and Treasure, two humpbacks not commonly seen on trips, and they were a little elusive today. We saw the pair fluking on each of their dives and it was great to see the difference in the coloration of their flukes.

Rattan's fluke

Then we moved towards Provincetown and got great close looks at Spike, Moray/Warrior, and Mars crossing our bow. They were surfacing more readily than Rattan and Treasure, and Mars lifted her tail high into the air next to our bow and waved it around at passengers. It was a beautiful day out on the water and we were able to see a number of different pelagic bird species, including Northern Gannets, Manx and Greater Shearwaters, and Eiders.

— Laura Cupicha

This afternoon we headed up to Jeffrey’s Ledge in search of whales. Just as we were passing Thatcher’s Island we spotted to blows just a quarter of a mile to our right. These whales turned out to be Orbit and Slingshot.

Valley's fluke

This pair of humpbacks was traveling together at the surface, probably doing some subsurface feeding after diving down. It was easy to tell these two whales apart at the surface because Slingshot has some very white scarring along it’s back and dorsal fin. This could possibly be from an entanglement.

Valley's tailstock

Eventually, we saw a couple of different blows in the distance so we decided to see what else was in the area. It turned out to be another pair of humpbacks, this time it was Valley and Sickle. I recognized Valley almost immediately due to her lack of dorsal fin.

Valley and Sickle dorsal fins (or lack thereof)

These two were traveling very slowly at the surface. Whenever Valley would take a dive, she would fluke almost in slow motion. It looked like a lot of effort to bring her thick tail-stock into the air. This pair was great to watch, and with our last looks they started moving close to our boat! They travelled slowly right off our starboard side. There was another humpback sighted in the distance at the end of the trip, but we had to head back to Boston. Looks like Jeffrey’s Ledge has been a popular spot recently!

— Annie G

Our 10am whale watch on board the Cetacea yesterday was quite a roller coaster, but it turned out to be one of the most fantastic whale watches I have ever been on!

Open mouth feeding!

Tornado's signature open mouth with the double pectoral slap

As we approached the southern part of the bank, we saw groups of feeding humpbacks everywhere! The first group we approached was a large group of about 6-8 kickfeeding humpbacks including Milkweed, and her calf, Perseid, Tornado’s calf, and Pleats. Tornado’s calf was putting on an amazing show breaching entirely out of the water repeatedly! Soon, a number of these whales started heading toward a larger group of bubble net feeding whales ahead of us.

Hungry whales

Throughout this transition, we waited behind allowing the whales to move safely ahead while watching Pleats kickfeed next to Milkweed’s play-feeding calf. Both whales were alarmingly close to a set of buoys which marked the site of fishing gear, possibly a gill net or lobster pot. Just as I began addressing the danger fixed fishing gear poses to marine animals, we watched as this young calf became entangled in the line (see photo), dragging both buoys beneath the surface as it dove to escape the gear.

Milkweed's calf dragging fishing gear

While whales in Massachusetts Bay become entangled in fishing gear just about every day, this was the first time in three years of whale watching that I have witnessed an entanglement firsthand. We immediately began calling a disentanglement team because, as entangled whales struggle, the line can wrap further around and deeper into the whales causing infection and, depending on the type of entanglement, even death. Often, however, whales are able to shed the gear on their own and, luckily, this is what happened today. After repeated tail lobs, the calf was able to free itself from the line and appeared to be gear-free throughout the rest of the trip. Nonetheless, we will continue to monitor the calf’s condition in the coming days to make sure there are no hidden lines wrapped around any less-obvious parts of its body.

Lots of whales!

After the calf freed itself, it swam ahead to the newly formed super group of about 12 whales that were collaboratively bubble net feeding. This group included Tornado, Milkweed, Perseid, Salt, Tear, Aswan, Colt, Octave, Storm and Timberline. It was absolutely jaw dropping to watch these whales work so well together time after time. Eventually, the group split up into smaller groups; however, more whales joined one of the smaller groups forming another group of 9 bubble net feeding whales. Throughout this feeding, we watched some amazingly unique behavior; Tornado using her signature double pectoral fin slaps and Tear filtering on his back.

Thread and Tornado get mouths full

Today was an unforgettable day on the water and we look forward to hopefully seeing Milkweed’s calf healthy and gear free in the coming days.

Tasia

This afternoon, we headed out on the Asteria towards the southwest corner of Stellwagen Bank where dozens of whales have been enjoying a daily banquet of sand lance. As we approached the bank, our intern Sam and I scanned the horizon in search of activity. Tracking maybe eight to ten spouts along the horizon, we zeroed in on where the largest groups of feeding whales appeared to be. The commotion created by the feeding humpbacks must have also caught the attention of two large fin whales in the area who steadily cruised alongside us.

Sand lance flying

Big gulp

Approaching the feeding group with the most bird activity, we were not surprised to find Osprey and Pleats who have been two of our many regulars over the past few weeks. The third whale, however was a mystery to us. We later IDed the whale as Eraser! While the trio was pretty calm upon our arrival, things heat up very quickly! These whales began repeatedly lunging out of the water directly next to the boat. Sand lance flew from their mouths as they lunged through the school of fish (see photo). I got the impression that maybe the sand lance were actually trying to hide beneath the Asteria for shelter based on how close the bubble clouds were to the boat (see photo).

Baleen and big mouths full of water and fish

Impressive bubble cloud

Eventually, a nearby trio joined powers with our trio and began creating enormous bubble nets! Again, two of them were regulars (Samara and Aswan), but one I did not recognize. I found it very interesting that these were all single whales. We have seen many mothers with their calves just about every day but, today they were nowhere to be seen. Hopefully, they were in one of the nearby groups so we will continue to see them in the coming days.



After looking very closely at my photos while trying to ID the two unknowns, I noticed that one of them had a recent entanglement injury on its peduncle. Whales will often become wrapped and entangled in fixed fishing gear such as lobster pots and gill nets. The freshness of the wound indicates that the entanglement most likely occurred within the past few days or so. Sometimes they can free themselves of the entanglements but, other times entanglements inhibit them from feeding freely. The deep gauges can also cause infection which may lead to death. It’s great to see that Weathervane, this second unknown, was triumphant in freeing itself. This scar will become evidence of one of possibly many entanglements this whale will encounter throughout its life.

Entanglement injury along the tail of Weathervane

At one point during today's feeding frenzy, a young man on the port pulpit even got a selfie with Osprey!

— Tasia, photos and naturalist

Nile going down on a dive: You can get a really good look at the scar on her peduncle from a previous entanglement.  That gave passengers a first-hand look at the damage entanglement in fishing gear can cause.

In this photo, you can only see a tiny bit of Nile’s right dorsal side.  Whale watch boats don’t need to see Nile’s fluke to recognize her at this point.  We’ve seen her enough lately to know the distinct hooked or curved dorsal fin on her back and that it tilts to the right.  Nile has a white scar on the right side of her dorsal fin as well. Another distinguishing mark on this side of the whale is the dimple-like scar that is from a previous satellite tag.

This morning on the Aurora’s 10 am whale watch, we went to the northwestern corner of Stellwagen Bank to find a deep feeding humpback whale named Hornbill. Hornbill was taking 4-8 minute dives before surfacing, but stayed up long enough to give passengers good looks.

Hornbill's fluke

We were able to get two nice looks at Hornbill’s fluke before heading home.  Hornbill is a male humpback born in 1977, one of the older known whales documented in the North Atlantic Humpback Whale Catalog.

Sedge's hooked dorsal fin, see more pictures of his abnormal fin

On the Aurora’s 2 pm whale watch, winds picked up quite a bit, and we found a breaching humpback whale near the northwestern corner of Stellwagen Bank! We identified this whale as Sedge. Sedge is a male born in 1988 with a distinct dorsal (a deep scar in the back of the fin is visible from far away).  This scar is most likely from an entanglement in fishing gear. Sedge fully breached 8 to 10 times and there were several chin breaches as well.

It was a special treat and the most breaching I’ve seen yet this season. The last time I saw Sedge on a whale watch was off the coast of Mount Desert Island in Maine.  Maybe Sedge is working his way north!

-- Christine