~Emily Griffin, Naturalist

Labels: feeding, minke whale, Reflection

Photo taken by a visitor.
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Photos by Melissa Rocha

Our morning trip we had a feeding frenzy happening! A bunch of humpbacks were feeding everywhere. We were on the southern part of the bank again today; that seems to be the hot spot right now for food. There were a couple of whale watch boats by us, and all together at least 15-20 whales feeding around us! What a great day. I couldn't tell passengers where to even look--the whales were all around! We had Leukos, Nile and her calf, Geometry, and Reflection and her calf, just to name a few that we could get IDs on. Then we had one doing several breaches as it was time to go to top the trip off!
~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: 2009 Season, breaching, feeding, Geometry, Nile, Reflection

Photos by Melissa Rocha

We traveled to the southern part of the bank again this afternoon, and found a few humpbacks that were still feeding! We got some great looks at them. One of them swam close by after coming up with its mouth just slightly open as it was letting all water drain out from feeding. You can see the sandlance that they are feeding on in the water!
~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: feeding, humpbacks

Photos by Melissa Rocha

This morning trip we traveled to the southern part of the Stellwagen Bank Sanctuary. We came across a ton of whales. We had not only humpbacks but also lunge feeding fin whales! The fin and humpbacks were all mixed in together feeding on large schools of sandlance. The fin is the second largest whale and to watch it feed is pretty incredible! The humpbacks were doing a lot of open mouth bubble feeding, giving us great looks at their baleen plates. We saw so many whales this morning, including Reflection and her calf. The calf was a little ways away trying to feed for itself--this calf is still nursing but making efforts to be able to feed on its own. We also saw Stump, Filament, and several others who just didn't show their tails since they were too busy chowing down!
~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: 2009 Season, feeding, fin whale, humpback

We had so much activity this afternoon, it seemed like every whale we saw was doing something on the surface on the water! We watched a mother whose calf was breaching and rolling around a ton. Then every other whale we saw on the trip seemed to be doing either be breaching, flipper slapping, or swimming close by us to give us great looks!
~Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: 2009 Season, breaching, feeding, flipper slapping

We had a fantastic 4th of July sunset watch! It began by finding a humpback mother and calf pair. We got some nice looks at these two, with mom even giving us a few tail lobs! This pair was traveling a bit, so we decided to head over to some other humpbacks nearby. We then found at least four humpbacks feeding! The best part was that our mother and calf from earlier came over to join the others. We saw some great open mouth feeding as well as a few rolls and tail slaps from all of these whales, who were very close together and very close to our boat. It looks like summer weather has finally come to New England, and we had a beautiful sunset, complete with fireworks as we approached Boston! Happy Fourth of July!
~Jackie O'Mara, Naturalist

Labels: calf, feeding, humpbacks, mother

We got to see a bunch of humpback whales feeding this morning! Two of the whales we saw were Refection and her calf, her calf was learning to feed, which allowed all of us some pretty cool and unique looks. The calf was trying to mimic it's mother, and the other whales around it, however they weren't all doing just one feeding technique they were all doing a few different ones. This resulted in the calf doing a strange attempt at all of them. It was pretty funny to watch at times, but on one of the times the calf came up next to the boat trying to lunge open mouth through the school of fish, we got to see it's little baleen plates so nicely! There was so much sandlance in the water, and schools of it as far as we could see. Also not only were the whales loving all the sandlance but we saw several large fish under the surface feeding on them as well.
~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: calf, feeding, humpbacks, juvenile, mother

Photo courtesy Yvonne Baur
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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 courtesy of Jordan Carswell.
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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

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

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

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
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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.
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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

Photos courtesy of Dimitar Milanov.
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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

Here is a photo of Etch-a-Sketch's fluke. She is a humpback whale we often see during our trips.

On today's trip we had a few humpback whales. Two of the whale were doing some feeding just below the surface. The bait must have been in small schools, because the whales were really working hard to be able to eat. One of the whales we watched for most of the trip today was Glo-Stick.

-Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: Etch-a-Sketch, feeding, Glo-Stick, humpbacks

Photo by Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Today's trip was Phenomenal! Several humpbacks including a mother calf pair with an escort, harbor porpoises, a minke, and even a Harbor seal! We had a whale named Etch-a-sketch again today doing quite a bit of open mouth feeding. At the same time we had several harbor porpoises swimming around the boat. Though the most unusual part was a small harbor seal that was hanging out right next to the boat! Seals can commonly be seen on trips, though usually just for a moment or two, but this little guy was with us for a while. It even swam right down the whole side of the boat checking out everyone on board! Plus we saw one of the first Mother calf pairs of the season. The calf was feeling very curious and came right over next to the boat, rolling around showing off it's stomach and doing some head-stands. Such a great day on the water!

- Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: calf, Etch-a-Sketch, feeding, harbor seal, humpback, humpbacks, mother

Photo by Barry McGovern WCNE

Our trips these past few days have been incredible! We have been able to find several feeding humpback whales. The whales seem to be quite hungry, as they should be. They haven't eaten since last fall when they left the feeding grounds up here in the North Atlantic. These whales fast through the winter when they are in their breeding and calving grounds. We have been seeing a lot of open mouth feeding, which is when the whale comes up with it's mouth wide open and we can actually see inside and the baleen plates hanging down. Humpbacks are a type of whale that don't have teeth but baleen plates to help them feed. Some of the Humpbacks that we were able to ID: Etch-a-Sketch, Measles and Pipette.

-Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist.

Labels: Etch-a-Sketch, feeding, humpbacks, Measles, Pipette

photo by naturalist Melissa Rocha

Whales were doing lots of resting and deep feeding today. In the morning they were feeding below the surface and coming up with their mouths full of water, the water was then being forced out through their baleen plates to strain their food. In the afternoon most of the whales we saw and we saw quite a few were logging or resting. Whales will rest whenever they need or get the chance too. They don't have bedtimes like us.

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Labels: 2008 Season, feeding, humpback whale, logging

Some great looks at some well known regulars. Mom's Echo and Crown continue to be seen just about everyday with their calves. Some of the whales have been seen doing some feeding at the surface. All that feeding has even made several minke whales come right up by the boat for some good looks. Whales seen: Lavalier, Echo and calf, Tectonic, Anchor, Crown and calf, Fulcrum, Tear, and Rune.

Labels: 2008 Season, feeding, humpback whale, minke whale

photo by naturalist Melissa Rocha

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Labels: 2008 Season, feeding, humpback whale