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

Photos by Melissa Rocha

Labels: Alphorn, Apex, basking shark, cajun, calf, Coral, Jabiru, Milkweed, Mostaza, mother, Simian, Tornado

Photo courtesy of a whale watch visitor.
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Photos by Melissa Rocha

This afternoon's trip we had tons of whales! We not only saw humpbacks but also had some fin whales close by, and the best part being we saw our 1st basking shark of the 2009 season! Sadly with all the awesome whales out there we did learn that there was an entangled whale on the Bank, we kept our eyes out for it but didn't see it. One of the ways we knew who to look for was by the fact that we can ID individual humpbacks. The way we do this is by looking on the underside on their tail at the black and white pattern. The Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies has the disentanglement team and would have been the ones to help disentangle the whale had it been spotted that day. Some of the Humpbacks that we did see were: Mars and her calf, Tornado, Tracer, Cajun, Hancock, and several others that I am still ID'ing.
~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: basking shark, cajun, Hancock, Mars, Tornado, Tracer

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

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

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 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

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 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