The northwest corner of Stellwagen Bank was teeming with whales on our 10am whale watch! There were four different mother and calf pairs including Milkweed, Canopy, Perseid, Nile and each of their calves! We also saw Bayou, Cajun Aerospace and Draco.

Nile, Bayou and other humpback

These whales were separated into three different groups that periodically joined, separated and swapped individuals. They were definitely doing some subsurface feeding as they’d all dive at once followed by a synchronized surfacing. Meanwhile, the calves milled at the surface sometimes joining in on the dives.

Nile does a headstand

As our whale watch progressed, a thick fog rolled in. Most of these whales stayed very close by our boat swimming in and out of visibility.

Nile's calf's tail breach

We were lucky to watch Nile’s calf just about the entire trip who was doing a series of repeated tail breaches and creating enormous splashes! The young calf put on quite a show!

— Tasia

***

Today on board Aurora for the 12pm whale watch, we traveled to the northwest corner of Stellwagen bank. About 15 minutes shy of the bank, we ran into a huge fog bank. That made the next 45 minutes of searching for whales very difficult because we could only see about 100 feet off the bow.

Canopy's youngest calf

Luckily Captain Chip persisted in the pursuit of whales, and finally we spotted a calf. Not much further past the calf, a large group of humpbacks surfaced. It was difficult to ID the individuals but after some time with them we found out who they were.

Nile's fluke in the fog

In the area was Nile and calf, Milkweed and calf, Perseid and calf, Canopy and calf, Draco, Bayou, Cajun, and Aerospace. They were taking short dives and changing direction multiple times, probably doing some deep feeding.

— Hannah P. and Kira L.

Despite the heavy fog on the 9am whale watch on board the Cetacea we headed out towards the southwest corner of Stellwagen Bank.

Foggy Boston Harbor

Very quickly into our search a whale appeared quite close to the boat. It was staying near the surface and we got good enough looks to think “that’s a small whale”.

Echo's calf was feeling frisky and did lots of playing near the boat

No sooner did we say that before mom arrived on the scene putting the 6 month old calf’s size into perspective! We spent the entire trip with Echo and her calf being entertained by the calf’s antics. This little whale hung around the boat while mom took longer dives, perhaps in search of food.

Echo and her calf

We got some flipper slapping, tail slashes, rear behavior where the calf surface backwards, tail first rather than head first! All in all a great trip despite the less than perfect weather.

Hordes of whales

On the 1:30 trip on board the Cetacea we headed out again into thick fog towards the southwest corner. There is something magical that happens when you reach the southwest corner, the fog, which during the whole trip has been close around us, just opened up and gave us at least a half mile to a mile of visibility!

Passengers got great looks at Tornado

Here we found whales upon whales moving in every direction. We identified Pele, Perseid, Apex, Storm, Pepper, Ravine, Pumba and three mother and calf pairs, Nile and calf, Tornado and calf, and Milkweed and calf. We also spotted a new whale for the season Canopy, who also looked to be accompanied by a calf. We got some great close approaches and breaches from some of the calves with amazing looks everywhere. The birds were also in high numbers with every type of shearwater, Wilson’s storm-petrels, and gulls absolutely everywhere.

Cheers,
Tegan

***

Today on board the Asteria, we traveled to the Southwest corner of the bank in the pouring rain. Even though we had less that 1 mile of visibility, we still found whales.

Four humpback whales: They don't mind the rain!

We had started by traveling towards the location of the 9am whale watch, but found lots of humpbacks before reaching that location. We had a 3 groups of scattered humpbacks; 5 whales (2 mom and calf pairs with one adult), 2 humpbacks, and 2 other humpbacks.

Octave's dorsal fin

We spent most of our trip with the group of 5; Tornado and Calf, Octave, and 2 unknowns. They were taking short dives, about 4-5 minutes, and were traveling. See attached photo of Octave’s left dorsal and of the group traveling. We then spent some time with one of our pairs, Pele and Pumba. This group was also taking short dives and traveling. Both Pumba and Octave are new sightings for us this season!

Boston Light amid the fog as we were leaving the harbor

— Hannah

***

Today on the Aurora we headed out in the fog once again to the Southwest corner of Stellwagen Bank. Our trip began with a very elusive humpback. We haven’t been able to get an ID just yet because I was only able to get a photo of half of its left fluke.

Canopy

Perseid

Pivot

We continued a bit further and found even more humpback whales randomly traveling in groups. There were many splits and joins today with groups ranging from 2 to 5 whales! Throughout the day there were between 8-10 whales in the area. We were able to ID Octave, Canopy, Bayou, Pivot, Milkweed and calf and Tornado and calf. It was a very exciting day jam-packed with humpback whales as well as many sooty and greater shearwaters!

Another foggy, yet successful day out on the water!

When we arrived on the bank this morning on our 10am whale watch, the patchy fog made it a bit difficult to find whales. With a little luck and some help from neighboring vessels, we first came across two large fin whales traveling north. Swimming very quickly, this duo vanished through the thick fog as quickly as they appeared. Further ahead of us, the one and only humpback whale named Osprey was open mouth feeding. I’ve said it before, this whale gets around! I can probably count on one hand how many whale watches I’ve been on this season where I have NOT seen Osprey. Osprey wasn’t the only humpback in the area. As the fog thinned, we spotted Measles in the distance who was putting on a spectacular display of power lunge feeding!

Measles puts on a show of lunge feeding

The fog had dissipated by the time we made it out on our 1:30pm whale watch and Measles was at it again! First seen in 2002, Measles is at least 12 years old and by the looks of it a very strong whale!

Measles bursts through the water's surface open mouthed

With pleats full, Measles closes his mouth

Measles' pleats flatten out at the surface

Measles splashes down back into the water

The lunges Measles was making while feeding made it look more like a breeching frenzy then a feeding frenzy. With every open mouth lunge, Measles pushed half its body out of the water along with hundreds of gallons of sea water and a whole lot of sand lance! With each breeching lunge Measles landed with a huge splash as its ventral pleats flattened against the surface of the water! This went on for the entire whale watch! It was clear Measles was working the fish into dense bait balls below the boat, sometimes using bubbles and sometimes using just its body to manipulate the fish and force them to the surface. All we had to do to know where Measles would surface was to look and listen for the bate on the surface of the water and there he/she was lunging high up out of the ocean! I have never seen a lunge feeding whale exhibit such immense power with each mouthful! It was truly incredible to witness!

There was tons of bait in the water and a number of other animals in the area were enjoying their fair share. On our way out, we saw a fin whale (possibly one of those we saw earlier) swimming very quickly in our same direction. A small gray seal was sighted a number of times throughout the trip and was possibly one of the unseen forces moving the bait around the surface of the water as the fish were pursued from beneath. As we cruised away from the feeding scene, Measles, joined by an unknown humpback, continued to feast! We and the whales had another spectacular day on Stellagen Bank!

— Tasia Blough

On the Cetacea’s 2 p.m. whale watch today, we headed north toward Jeffrey’s Ledge after hearing rumors that Pinball and Satula were in the area. When we arrived at the Ledge, Pinball the humpback was deep feeding solo and we were able to observe her for a while. She was fluking consistently and popped up near the boat several times. It was great to have the fog lift so we could view one of our favorite whales of the season!

Pinball diving | You can see barnacles attached to the side of her fluke. A humpback can host almost 1,000 pounds of barnacles!

This morning on the Cetacea’s 9 a.m. whale watch, we headed north towards Jeffrey’s Ledge. On the way, we encountered thick patches of fog, limiting visibility greatly. We moved around quite a bit to continue searching, but unfortunately there were no whale sightings. All passengers were issued rain checks, just like the 10 a.m. trip.

-- Alexis