We had a spectacular whale watch this afternoon aboard the Aurora! On the southern end of the bank, we came across an insane feeding frenzy.

Sundown open-mouth feeding

Birds and blufin tuna!

Scattered across the area, there were a number of distinct feeding groups which were made obvious by large congregations of birds and white splashing at the water’s surface. These groups were not made up of just whales but rather all different types of animals feeding together. From what we could tell, these animals included many different bird species, bluefin tuna, humpbacks, dolphins and even a fin whale! Sand lance were of course the target fish and there were plenty to go around. I have never seen so many different animals feeding on one bait ball.

Sundown's head

As far as whales go, there were about fifteen humpbacks spread out across the area. Most of these whales were either solo or in groups of two. We first spent some time with Midnight and her calf who were bubble net feeding! It was unclear whether this calf was participating or just along for the ride. These coming days will be the last the calf will spend with its mom before they separate and make their way back down to the breeding grounds for the winter.

Sundown kick feeding

Sundown diving

Sundown open-mouth feeding

We then went on to Sundown who was displaying really exciting kick-feeding behavior! Since every humpback has their own sort of style of kick-feeding, it’s always really cool to see a new whale kick-feed for the first time and learn how they do things. Sundown uses a single, high-raised and swift kick to the surface in one fluid motion before diving in a loop, blowing bubbles and surfacing with a large open mouth (see photo)! Check out those sand lance trying to escape! One is even stuck in her baleen. Looks like someone needs to floss! We got to watch her as she repeatedly exhibited this fascinating feeding behavior right next to the boat!

We then moved on to two old-timers, Salt and Colt, who were bubble-net feeding together along with a slew of other aforementioned animals. You could tell that this was not Salt and Colt’s first rodeo. This duo seemed to follow the tuna hopping from bait ball to bait ball as the hoard of animals repeatedly conquered various schools of sand lance.

Towards the end of the whale watch, we also spotted two solo calves who may have just separated from their mothers. One of these young whales was Milkweed’s calf whom we saw with his mother earlier this week. It’s possible that his mother was nearby, but we did not spot her. The second calf we saw only from afar and could not recognize.

Finally, the bird activity out on the bank today was absolutely incredible! We saw thousands of birds including northern gannets, lots of different species of gulls, Cory’s and great shearwaters. Hopefully this exciting activity will continue through the late fall!

Tasia

So luckily the seas calmed down this afternoon – and we certainly were rewarded! We traveled to the SW corner of Stellwagen to find 20-25 humpback whales scattered in groups bubble net feeding and kick feeding (which includes 4 mom-calf pairs), 4-6 fin whales, 1 minke whale, and a HUGE amount of gull activity!

If you're a humpback whale, the food is bountiful this time of year!

We started out getting looks of two traveling fin whales, and then found Nile and calf! It’s been great to see the most photographed whale of 2013 finally with her calf in tow, and the pair treated us to a nice look crossing our bow.

Nile and calf swimming

We left Nile and calf as Milkweed and her calf began approaching them to move on to the feeding frenzy in the distance. At any given time, there were about 2 to 3 spiral bubble nets scattered about, with tons of gulls swarming to each net, and also scattered kick-feeding humpbacks.

Bubble net bonanza

A few fin whales were traveling amongst the humpbacks. We ended up on a group of 5 humpbacks – Vulture and calf, Yoo Hoo (who followed closely alongside Vulture), Daffodil, and Grackle. These five repeatedly gave us amazing looks of large spiral nets, where Vulture would always come up first. We had to put our boat out of gear because they kept feeding closer to us – and at one point the group made a net right next to us!

You could call these front row seats

We were treated to a spectacular look as the group open-mouth alongside us – my favorite shot of the day is an up-close look of the barnacles & stovebolts on one of the whale’s chin as it came up feeding – I had to zoom out to get a shot of its ventral grooves.

Barnacles and stovebolts on this humpback's chinny-chin-chin

Just as we thought it couldn’t get any better, Glo-Stick and calf came by us to kick feed, and several other humpbacks were surrounding us feeding. Vulture’s calf also got very curious to the boat – swimming under our pulpits for several minutes!!

Glo-Stick kick feeding

We wrapped up the trip surrounding by 10 to15 humpbacks bubble and kick feeding in every direction —another spectacular day!

— Laura Howes

On the Cetacea, we headed back to mid-bank to find a whole bunch of activity. When we arrived, we found scattered blows of several humpbacks, including splashes from kick-feeding and tons of gulls swarming around the bubble clouds in the distance. We estimated about 10 to 12 whales around in total.

Whale feeding frenzy

Pepper and Tongs

We first spotted humpbacks Pepper and Yoo Hoo bubble feeding in the distance (Pepper lunged open-mouthed at the surface a few times), who quickly joined up a bit with Tongs and her 2014 calf to continue to feed. It was great to see so much bait around and bird activity!

Pleats fluke

After that the whales started to spread out a bit. We spent more time with Tongs and calf (the calf even rolled a bit!) and also one of our crew members spotted a full breach of humpback Pleats (Ventisca’s 2008 calf).

Springboard kick feeding

We wrapped up our trip moving to another scattered group of Springboard, Milkweed and calf, and a few other individuals. We observed even more kickfeeding, a large bubble cloud of 3 feeding humpbacks (see photo of feeding frenzy at top), and wrapped up the trip with Milkweed’s calf lobtailing. We got a great look of the calf’s milky-fluke, which will become a more permanent pattern by the time it is about 2 years old.

Milkweed calf tail lob

Another great day on Stellwagen!

— Laura Howes