We had a great trip on the Cetacea today! We decided to head to the south to see if we could find anything different to the last few days. Not even on to the bank we spotted some activity on the perfectly clear flat waters.

We spotted two animals but stayed off until we were able to identify whether we had humpbacks or right whales (Right whales are critically endangered and federal law requires a 500-yard buffer zone between vessels/people and the whales). In the meantime passengers got some great views of the animals diving and fluking. We moved off and soon found a pair of fin whales.

Pair of fin whales

These two animals gave fantastic views and stayed at the surface for 4-5 minutes after each dive, one even rolled on its side and gave a good look at the ventral pleats! This was definitely a pair. Our last look was of both whales on either side of the boat before they rejoined behind us.

It was a great day out on the water for the beginning of the season.

-Tegan

Today we had an exciting day aboard the Cetacea! We started the morning heading out towards the northwest corner of Stellwagen, but on the way our captain spotted a blow west of the bank. We stuck around for a while in hopes of seeing it again and, while we saw one more blow of the whale, we weren’t able to get any looks of the individual so we moved on to the bank.

Northern gannet

Once we got to the NW corner we didn’t find much marine mammal life, but we did find various seabirds including northern gannets, black-backed gulls and razorbills in winter plumage.

Northern gannet trying to grab a flounder from a gull

We then started heading home with the looks of no whales for the trip, but right as we traveled through Nantasket roads (between Hull and Boston Light) we spotted a juvenile right whale! Passengers, crew, all of the training naturalists onboard and myself were quite excited and surprised to find this young whale so close to shore!

Right whale | Photo: naturalist Tasia

We first spotted the whale taking a dive, so we stopped the boat and stayed a safe distance away of 500+ yards as according to the right whale restriction guidelines. The whale continued to take shallow dives spending a good amount of time at the surface. From the looks of the individual, we estimated it to be about 20–30 feet in length, and it seemed to be healthy (though it did have prior entanglement scars on its fluke). Learn what the right whales are eating in Cape Cod Bay on the Right Whale Research Blog!

Right whale | Photo: naturalist Tasia

Overall quite an interesting day! As we left this whale, it appeared to be traveling safely out of the harbor (as we would want it to!). While it’s exciting to see a whale so close to shore, hopefully tomorrow it will be long gone from the harbor.

Google Earth image of the location of right whale

Here’s to the official first whale of the season!

— Laura