The afternoon trip we went to the area we had been in this morning, and there was still bait fish all over! Lavalier and her calf were in the area, as were so many others. We had a pair of lunge feeding fin whales, bubble nets and kick feeding from humpbacks. We had Pinpoint and Cajun in the area, as well. Cajun gave us some amazing open mouths very close to the boat! We also got a few appearances from minkes in the area.
~ Emily Griffin, Naturalist

Labels: bait, cajun, fin whale, Lavalier, lunge feeding, minke whale, pinpoint

This photo was submitted by Paul Bishop.
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Our PM trip was amazing! We first came upon two fin whales traveling together. This is a rare sight to begin with, but then they began lunge feeding! It was such a great opportunity to see the full size of these whales. Even our captain said she had never seen that behavior from finbacks. While this was going on, we had another 5 or so humpbacks around our boat. These whales were doing a variety of activities to take advantage of all the bait fish in the area. We saw some tail slapping, open mouth feeding, and bubble netting from these humpbacks. It was a fantastic trip!
~Jackie O'Mara, Naturalist

Labels: bait, bubble feeding, fin whale, humpbacks, lunge feeding, tail slapping

It seems third time was the charm today. Our sunset cruise began in the same very dense fog that was around earlier in the day. We lucked out though, and it cleared up half way into our voyage! The first whale we found was a minke! This little whale stayed near us for a bit before swimming away, allowing us to get some good looks at it. We then saw a breach from a humpback! It happened quite quickly, so only a few of us saw it, but we stayed with this whale and got some great close looks at it's body including it's fluke. This individual even treated us to a little roll - perhaps interested in the school of sandlance in the water!
~Jackie O'Mara, Naturalist

Labels: bait, breaching, flukes, minke whale, rolling

We saw some interesting things on our morning adventure. In all, we saw at least six humpbacks, if not more! We first found a few single whales going on some deep dives. While they were at the surface, we were able to get some great looks at their flukes. Moving on to some more whales a ways away, we came across TWO mother and calf humpback pairs, and possibly had a few more single whales in the vicinity. Both mother-calf pairs got close to our boat, so we were able to get great looks at them! Additionally, we spotted many birds on the water, along with some very large striped bass and HUGE schools of sandlance (a favorite treat for humpbacks!) in the water.
~Jackie O'Mara, Naturalist

Labels: bait, calf, flukes, humpbacks, mother

Humpback open mouth feeding (top), including some sandlance coming out of the whale's mouth and sandlance at surface (bottom). Photos by Melissa Rocha.

On this mornings trip we saw at least 10-15 different humpback whales all feeding! We traveled to the South west part of Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, the whales were feeding non stop while we were there! The whales were doing a lot of lunge and open mouth feeding, and the school of sandlance (bait) that they were feeding on was right next to the boat! A few times some of the whales came up next to us! There was one mother and calf pair out, it was Anvil with her calf. We also had Sloop who was a mother last year. Such a great day on the water with amazing whales feeding all around us!
~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: anvil, bait, bubble feeding, calf, humpbacks, mother

Photo of Pinch by Melissa Rocha

Today's PM trip was just as spectacular as the AM, we saw Fracture and Pogo again, as well as Pinch, and several others who I am still working on ID's for, but a few were juveniles probably only 30 ft long instead of a full 50 ft! There was SO much bait in the water, and birds working on the surface but not really any whales feeding, which was rather strange. The last several days we have seen a lot of this behavior. So many whales all around the boat a great sign for season! ~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: bait, fracture, humpbacks, juvenile, pinch, Pogo