Our PM trip was quite the ride. The seas were very bumpy, but we made it out to the whales anyway. Once we got out there we had an amazing show! We had several Humpbacks around us, with about three breaching! Among this group was a mother and calf pair, and the calf was doing some breaching as well (maybe learning how to breach from Mom and the other adults around). After some breaching and good looks at the torsos of these whales, two of the adult humpbacks began lobbing their flukes together. They were side by side slapping their flukes in unison and we even got a double breach at one point! Despite our sea conditions, we had a phenomenal day. As we pulled into Boston Harbor in the rain, a rainbow appeared over us--a nice metaphor for the afternoon.
~Jackie O'Mara, Naturalist

Labels: breaching, calf, humpbacks, mother, tail lobbing

Today was a crazy day out on the water! We started out this morning seeing several humpback and fin whales! It was quite a nice surprise to get good looks at multiple individuals from these species. One of our fin whales was absolutely huge and going on some shallow dives. As far as our Humpbacks were concerned, we had a mother and calf doing some shallow dives as well, and a couple of other adults all diving and showing us their flukes on occasion. A few good photographers on board got some shots and we were able to ID one of the adult Humpbacks as Anchor! We weren't sure if Anchor was the mom we were looking at, but she is a confirmed mother. Apart from these whales that we were able to get close to, there were several others around us that were much further away. All in all, it was quite a busy morning.
~Jackie O'Mara, Naturalist

Labels: calf, fin whale, humpbacks, mother

Photo of Pepper by Melissa Rocha

Our sunset trip tonight, gave us beautiful view of the sun setting and of Provinctown, MA. We got to get some nice looks at 2 humpbacks close up, one of which being Pepper, who is one of the whales who was first spotted back in the 1970's! She was traveling with another whale, who I haven't gotten an ID on yet but hope to by the end of the week so check back!
~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: humpbacks, pepper, sunset

photos by Melissa Rocha

Such a nice afternoon to be on the water. We saw about 4 fin whales and got amazing looks at them! They usually don't hang out at the surface for as long as they did today, giving us a great opportunity to see how big they are. Then we saw several humpbacks, one group we were watching was a mother and calf pair with an escort. The calf was being very playful and rolling all around, but then one of the adults started to show off for us as well a real treat! And we had a special birthday today, our boat the Voyager III turned 10! Thank you to everyone who helped with signing to it!
~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: calf, humpbacks, mother, rolling, Voyager III

The AM trip today we saw breaching from humpback whales, fin whales and a few white-sided dolphins! The seas were bumpy but worth it to see all the activity from the humpbacks! We know we saw Tornado and Barb but that is all we could get ID's on so far.
~ Bart Ostrum, Naturalist

Labels: Barb, dolphins, fin whale, humpbacks, Tornado

Photo by Melissa Rocha

This afternoon's whale watch turned out to be nice. We started off with some rough seas, and cloudy weather but ended with calm seas and sunny weather! We found a few minke whales one of the smallest of the baleen whales, and a fin whale the second largest whale! The fin gave us some incredible looks, and it wasn't even a fully grown adult so you can only image how much larger they get!
~Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: fin whale, minke whale

Photo by Melissa Rocha

We saw about 4 humpbacks this morning, one that was a juvenile (only a few years old) stayed by us and gave us some nice looks.
~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: humpbacks, juvenile

Labels: calf, flukes, humpbacks, mother

Photo courtesy Yvonne Baur
See more photos from visitors and submit your own here.

Photos by Melissa Rocha

We canceled our AM trip but went out in the afternoon, and had a great trip! We saw several humpback whales, including Lavalier and her calf! We saw some beautiful open mouth feeding, which started as the whale was kicking the surface and then going down on a dive and blowing bubbles as the whale swims up.
~Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: calf, feeding, humpbacks, Lavalier, mother

Photos by Melissa Rocha

Our sunset trip tonight was Whalerific! So many whales, I couldn't even keep track!! They were having a fairly low key night, but there was lots of them. We had at least 12 different Humpbacks! One was a mother named Lavalier and her calf and she had an escort who I wasn't able to get an ID on. Then there was Trident, Vulture, Spirit, and 2 others all traveling together, and thanks to our captain being so nice let us stay another few minutes longer to get another look at them and let me get the fluke shot I needed to ID them. And of course to top off all the whales the sunset was absolutely beautiful!
~Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: calf, humpbacks, Lavalier, mother, Spirit, sunset, Trident, Vulture

Photos by Melissa Rocha

During the afternoon trip today Fulcrum showed up with her calf, to show off for us. Her calf was rolling all around, but still staying pretty close to mom. The calf was also doing come weird headstands under the water coming up to the surface with it's tail first and just laying there showing off! A beautiful day on the water!
~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: calf, Fulcrum, headstands, mother, rolling

Photos courtesy of Jordan Carswell.
See more visitor photos and submit your own here.

Photos by Melissa Rocha

On our AM trip we had several whales all around us! We got some really nice looks at both feeding humpbacks and a breaching one! One of the feeding whales came up with its mouth wide open right next to the boat, lunging out of the water giving great looks at the ventral pleats! Such a great look! Then we went and check out a breaching humpback and it started to breach so close to us! Some of the whales we had today were: Cajun, Isthmus and her calf, and Pixar! There were a few others that either didn't show off their tails or I wasn't able to catch them. A great way to start off Memorial Day!
~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: breaching, cajun, feeding, humpbacks, Isthmus, pixar

A few more photos.~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: flipper slapping, humpbacks, sunset

Photos by Melissa Rocha

Our second sunset of the season and another beautiful one! Even though we had some rain as we started out of Boston we got to see a rainbow, and a beautiful sunset on the Bank. We came across Etch-a-Sketch and he put on quite a show! Swimming right next to us and flipper slapping, when he was doing this he was rolling so far over we could see his eye above the water! The captain was able to position the boat and whale in the sunset view, providing the most beautiful pictures and views. The sunsets are proving to be such great trips just like last year.
~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: Etch-a-Sketch, sunset

Photos submitted by a visitor.
See more and submit your own here.

Photos by Melissa Rocha

We had 2 species on our PM trip! We first got AMAZING looks at 2 Fin whales, the second largest species of whale! They swam nice and close showing how large they really are! One of the animals had a propeller scar on it's right side. Entanglements and ship strikes are the biggest dangers to whales today. Then as if the fins whales weren't enough we went and saw a mother and calf pair that was super active on the surface! The mother was rolling at the surface flipper slapping then would go on a dive and come up BREACHING! Such a great afternoon with such cool looks at whales!
~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: breaching, calf, fin whale, humpbacks, mother

Photos by Melissa Rocha

We had a mother and calf pair with an escort this morning. Our mother was Isthmus with her calf from this year. Her escort was another well known female Cajun! The calf was pretty active at the surface rolling around and showing off its pectoral flippers! A nice trip with the weather holding off for us as well!
~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: cajun, calf, Isthmus, mother, rolling

Photos by Melissa Rocha

Our first Sunset of the 2009 season! We had a spectacular sunset! We had a mother calf pair with an escort, and the calf was pretty active. The calf was rolling around at the surface showing us it's pectoral flippers, and even better it was tail lobbing like crazy. Such a nice way to start off the sunset season! (The next sunset trip is May 30, and there are more in June. Check the schedule to see all of the upcoming dates.)
~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: calf, mother, sunset

Photos by Melissa Rocha

On our PM trip we had several humpbacks around us, and we got really nice looks at three different ones. Two of the ones that we got especially nice looks at were Filament and Draco. One of the whales spy-hopped right next to us! There was another whale that we got some looks at I believe it is a whale named Wizard.
~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: Draco, Filament, humpbacks, spy-hopped, Wizard

The AM trip today we saw several humpback whales, including a mother and calf pair. All the animals gave us some great looks looks, and we believe there were some fin whales in the area as well!
~ Naturalist Bart Ostrum.

Labels: calf, fin whale, humpbacks, mother

Photo by Melissa Rocha

Our afternoon trip gave us some cool looks at the second largest whale the fin whale! We saw 4 or 5 fin whales, including two that were traveling together that stayed at the surface a long time really letting us see how large and different shaped they are compared to the humpback. One of the pair of fin whales even rolled! Such a rare sight that we got to see it's pectoral flipper! We can see the pectorals of humpbacks under the surface of the water and often from them slapping the surface with them but fin whales don't usually show us much!

Photo by Melissa Rocha

We did also see Etch-a-Sketch again this afternoon, and gave us some looks at open mouth feeding but then it seemed like the bait moved on.
~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: Etch-a-Sketch, fin whale, rolling

Photo by Melissa Rocha

We had such a crazy morning trip! So many whales! We saw a fin whale and then started to watch 3 humpbacks. The 3 humpbacks were a mother and calf with and escort, Mom was Isthmus and the escort was another familiar female Cajun! Those three were making their way over to where another whale watching boat was watching Bilbo and other humpback who was feeding. So were watching all 4 whales when all of a sudden there was almost double the whales around us! All of them feeding, and we had the calf BREACH 2 times! The other 4 whales that moved in were another mother calf pair ( Fulcrum with calf), Etch-a-Sketch, and another large female who was a mom last year Tornado! Sadly we did have to leave but the whales didn't seem to want that, one of the whales and Isthmus and her calf saw right next to the boat!

Photo by Melissa Rocha

Plus we had a little warbler who hitched a ride back to Boston with us!
What a day to be out whale watching!

~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist, photos by Melissa Rocha

Labels: Bilbo, breaching, cajun, calf, Etch-a-Sketch, fin whale, Fulcrum, mother, Tornado

Photo by Melissa Rocha

Our PM we had several Humpbacks, including a mother and calf pair. We saw about 3 different Humpbacks that were breaching! We got some really nice looks at one of the ones that was breaching. We then took some looks at the mother and calf pair that was logging (resting) with 2 other humpbacks. Nice looks especially at all the breaching!
~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: breaching, calf, humpbacks, mother

Fin whale. Photo by Melissa Rocha, Naturalist

We had a great 1st trip today. We saw Mars and her calf with another juvenile traveling with them. Also 3 fin whales!

Labels: calf, fin whale, Mars, mother

Photo courtesy of Alberto Brando.
See more whale watch photos and submit your own here.

During our afternoon trip today we had quite the whale variety show! We saw not one, not two, but THREE species of whales. It seemed like a pretty low-key afternoon at first, and we spotted a fin whale going on some shallow dives. We moved away from this whale to search for more and passed by two shy little minke whales, each of whom hurried away from our boat. The grand finale was coming upon a humpback mother and calf pair. While we were watching the little calf, Mom came up on the other side of the boat and proceeded to slap and lob her fluke at least 20 or 30 times! We got great looks at the fluke of this mother whale, with the calf coming over to stay nearby and take breaths with it's mom every now and then. I wasn't able to identify this mother, which means we could have a new mom out on Stellwagen Bank! If we are unable to figure out who she is, she will be up for naming, and we had a group on board come up with the name "Whoopee" for this whale. We'll see what she gets!

~Jackie O'Mara, Naturalist

Labels: fin whale, humpbacks, minke whale, tail lobbing

This morning we came across a humpback whale feeding. It was doing some good tail slapping and circling around the boat searching for food. We then got some great looks at two fin whales travelling together, which is a rare sight! We finished up with another Humpback also feeding with some tail slapping and bubble nets. There were some eager gulls taking advantage of the fish churned up by this whale, some even brave enough to get right up on top of the whale's head and open mouth. We got some great shots of the open mouth of this whale, especially it's baleen plates.
~Jackie O'Mara, Naturalist

Labels: bubble nets, feeding, fin whale, humpbacks, tail slapping

During our PM trip, we saw yet another adorable mother-calf pair. This calf was very playful, doing some fluke and flipper slapping and even breaching! It waved to the boat a few times while mom went down on some shallow dives. These humpbacks were also travelling with a juvenile whale. We got some nice close looks at these whales, and we were lucky to see a little seal poke its head above the water to check us out!
~Jackie O'Mara, Naturalist

Labels: breaching, calf, dives, flipper slapping, harbor seal, humpbacks, mother

Today was "cute calf" day out on the water! On our morning trip we saw a Humpback mother and calf pair. The calf seemed to be a little curious about our boat and was also learning how to feed by practicing its bubble blowing techniques! We also came across Etch-a-Sketch along with a couple of other humpbacks and a fin whale.
~Jackie O'Mara, Naturalist

Labels: calf, Etch-a-Sketch, fin whale, humpbacks, mother

Photos courtesy of Gabriela Jürgensen
See more photos taken by visitors and upload your own here.

Photo by Melissa Rocha

Our PM trip today gave us such incredible looks at one of my personal favorite whales Fulcrum! Fulcrum has her second calf this year and her calf was showing off for us like crazy! Then if Fulcrum and her calf weren't enough another adult moved in and joined then, followed by another mother and calf pair, AND a juvenile and another adult! They only stayed with us for a little while but still was a nice extra treat. Fulcrum's calf was rolling and really showing off her tail, and flippers by slapping them on the surface. Such a great day!
~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: calf, flipper slapping, Fulcrum, mother

Photo by Melissa Rocha

We had a fabulous AM trip! we had at least 12 Humpbacks feeding all around us!! We had Anchor and her calf, and also Geometry, Etch-a-Sketch, Pogo, Wizard. The whales were doing lots of kick feeding and then diving down blowing bubbles, and coming up with their mouths WIDE open! Such great looks at so many whales!
~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: Anchor, Etch-a-Sketch, feeding, Geometry, kick feeding, Pogo, Wizard

Photo by Melissa Rocha

On our PM trip we had several humpback whales, and a fin whale, and minke whales as well! Three of the more commonly seen species. We first got some beautiful looks at 2 logging (resting) humpbacks, this gave us a great look at how graceful they are by swimming right next to the boat and diving underneath! Then we saw one of my favorite humpbacks, Fulcrum, and her calf for this year! Her calf was doing some rolling for us showing us all it's little ventral pleats and flipper off. We had Fulcrum the other day too, but it's always nice to see a mom and calf, it gives a great idea of how big they are even as babies!
~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: calf, fin whale, Fulcrum, humpbacks, logging, minke whale, mother

Photo courtesy of Todd Milligan.
See more whale watch photos and contribute your own here.

Photo by Melissa Rocha

On today's AM trip we had tons of feeding! We saw several humpbacks whales doing a lot of feeding including kick feeding and best of all some open mouth feeding right next to the boat! We were really able to see the baleen plates hanging down and how LARGE they are. We had a mom and calf also out feeding. All total there was probably around 10-12 Humpbacks feeding all around us! We had Isthmus and her calf, Cajun and a few others that I am still looking at and hope to ID later. A special Thanks to the Up Close with Whales group from the Aquarium, and Educator Kara. Kara brought on a plankton tow net, that she was able to get some copepods in and be able to show all passengers how the food webs work and lead up to seeing the whales feed! One sad thing from today's trip though was that we observed several balloons in the water, one of which was right where the whale was feeding! Thankfully the whale missed the balloon, but is why you should not let balloons go after parties or celebrations, and to help play a part in protecting the ocean!
~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: cajun, copepods, education, Isthmus, plankton tow net, pollution

Photos by Melissa Rocha

On our PM trip, we got a break from the fog, and were able to come across at least 6 humpbacks and a fin whale! We got some great looks at the fin whale and at it's white blaze on the right side of the whale. We saw a mother and calf with an escort (another adult helping mom out), and the calf was super active! The calf was doing a ton of tail breaching, and rolling, showing off nicely for us. We could see tons of blows and some breaching in the distance and took a ride to see who else was out on the water that day, and got a real treat by seeing Salt! Salt is considered the matriarch on the bank, she is one of the first Humpbacks to be photo-ID on the Bank! She was traveling with another adult, but the other animal never showed off its fluke for us to see.
~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: calf, fin whale, humpbacks, mother, rolling, Salt, tail breaching

Photo courtesy of Marc Salvi.
See more whale watch photos and contribute your own here.

On our AM trip we had a lot of fog and limited visibility, but that didn't stop us from being able to find 2 awesome Humpbacks! We got some great looks as the animals swam right up next to the boat, showing off how large they are. One of them was even doing some rolling under the surface of the water right next to us showing how graceful they can be! A nice trip despite the fog.
~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: fog, humpbacks, rolling

We had the most amazing trip today! Great weather, and amazing whales feeding! We had between 10-12 humpbacks all in the same area feeding! Several of the whales were doing some kick feeding and then blowing bubbles, coming up between the bubbles with their mouths open letting us see their baleen plates. We also got a real special treat by having 2 mother, calf pairs feeding right next to each other! The mothers were Fulcrum (one of my personal favorites) and Isthmus, and their calves were right by their mom's learning how to feed for themselves. One of the other whales was one by the name of Nazca, and there was a few others but haven't been able to get their ID's right away. Such a great trip!
~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: calf, Fulcrum, humpbacks, Isthmus, kick feeding, mother, Nazca

Today we had 2 humpbacks and a fin whale! The fin whale is the second largest whale. One of our humpbacks was a juvenile only a couple of years old, and was very active at the surface. The whale was doing a ton of flipper slapping which is when the whale rolls on it's side and uses it's large pectoral flippers to slap the surface of the water. Normally humpbacks in the Atlantic have pectoral flippers that are white on the top and bottom half but every once and a while we have one that looks more like the Pacific humpbacks, having black on the top and white on the bottom like our whale today. Such great looks!
~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: fin whale, flipper slapping, humpbacks

Today was another beautiful day on the water. We found a mother and calf pair doing some shallow dives. The calf was very cute, and we thought that the mother may have been a whale called Photon. As we were heading home we came across three or more other humpbacks also doing some shallow dives. Stopping to check out these whales, we were able to identify one as Rune, who we've seen out a few times already this season! ~Jackie O'Mara, Naturalist

Labels: calf, dives, mother, Photon, Rune

We had a gorgeous day today! It took us a little while to find some whales, but once we did, we got quite a show! First, we came across Cajun, a humpback whale we have seen several times recently. Cajun was feeding on some sand lance, which we could see at the surface of the water around her mouth. She made several bubble rings and also did some tail slapping. We then found another Humpback feeding in a similar way, along with some lucky seagulls, who were getting an easy lunch. We were able to get very close to both of these whales and get some good looks at their heads and mouths, including their baleen plates.
~Jackie O'Mara, Naturalist

Labels: bubble rings, cajun, feeding, humpbacks, tail slapping

Photo courtesy of Ryan Murphy
See more whale watch photos and contribute your own here.

Photo of Rune by Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Today was such a beautiful day on the water! We had several humpback whales including a few regulars. The whales were doing a little feeding when we first got their but the fish must have disappeared or been eaten, since the rest of the trip the whales were searching like crazy for more! We had Rune and Cajun, plus a few others.

~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: cajun, feeding, humpbacks, Rune

Photo courtesy of Kathryn Sievers.
See more whale watch photos and contribute your own.

Photo by Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Happy Mother's Day! We had a nice trip today. We got some great looks a Humpback whale. The whale was looking like it was searching for food under the surface of the water, by going down on dives and coming up in opposite directions. The whale I was not able to ID right away but am going to look at the photo a little more and try and get an ID this week to post on here.

~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: feeding, humpbacks

Photo of Cajun

Even with heavy fog we can still find whales! We had 2 Humpback whales today, we lost them in the fog a few times, but by being quiet and listening we were able to hear the sound make from their blows. We got some great looks at 2 very LARGE adults. One was a female named Cajun, who had a calf last year. Cajun's calf has already been seen up here on the bank this year! That is a great sign. The other adult I have not yet gotten an ID on, but as soon as I do I will post the ID on here. Also I will add a photo of both Cajun and the other whale on this site.

~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: cajun, calf, fog, humpbacks, mother

Photo of Raccoon

What a great day to be on the water!
We had about 8 humpbacks including some very well known individuals! We had Salt! Salt is considered the matriarch of Stellwagen Bank! She was first spotted back in the 1970's and she is still having calves, she had one last year! We also saw Alphorn and Raccoon! If all the humpbacks weren't enough we also got to see about 20 Atlantic white-sided dolphins! Between weather and whales it was a perfect day on the water!

Labels: Alphorn, dolphins, humpbacks, Raccoon, Salt

Photos courtesy of Dimitar Milanov.
See other whale watch photos and contribute your own here.

We had 3 Humpbacks today! We got to see a little bit of feeding from one of the whales, and some tail lobbing, which is when they wave their tail above the water!
~Naturalist Deb Ridings

Labels: feeding, humpbacks, tail lobbing

We had several Humpback whales today! We had a Mother and calf, as well as several juveniles, and a couple other adults, though no one really wanted to show off their ID's by showing us enough of their flukes for the most part. One of the whales we did get a good look at it's fluke but we are still trying to get an ID on it. Once we do we will post the fluke and ID.
~ Naturalist Jackie O'Mara, Photo by Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: calf, flukes, humpbacks, mother

Photo courtesy of Marjorie Burghart.
See more whale watch photos and contribute your own here.

Photo by Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: calf, humpbacks, mother

Labels: calf, Deb, humpbacks, mother

Calf in front of mother, photo by Melissa Rocha

Today's trip took us over lots of the bank in search of whales. We got some great looks at the size difference between and mother and her calf, as well as another humpback whale that was close by.
~Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: calf, humpbacks, mother

Today we had awesome weather compared to the last few days. We saw several humpback whales today including Draco! We also got some looks at 2 Fin whales, which are the second largest whale species. We saw Northern Gannets, and a few gull species.

Special thanks to the group from the Lydon State College that joined us on our trip today!

~Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: Draco, fin whale, Gannets, humpbacks

What a trip! The seas were a little bumpy, but we got great looks at some humpback whales! We had Dome and another juvenile humpback whale today. The juvenile who I wasn't able to get a good look at the fluke, gave us quite a show. We saw this animal tail breach and to top that did several full breaches and about 5 chin breaches! Such great looks!
~Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: breaching, humpbacks, juvenile, tail breaching