We had so many whales on this morning's trip; minkes, fins, and humpbacks were everywhere! We got some great close looks at both a fin and minke, and then we ran into Fulcrum and calf. They swam over to the boat for some amazing close looks, and the calf is getting so big! To top it off, as we were heading back we came across a baby basking shark! ~ Emily Griffin, Naturalist

Labels: basking shark, fin whale, humpbacks, minke whale

Labels: fin whale, lunge feeding, Scratch

Photo taken by a visitor.
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We started the trip with Crown and Fracture, two humpbacks, going on some pretty long dives. They were giving us some beautiful fluke views as the went down, but we moved on to see if we could get some more surface time. After heading a bit south, we came across and area where there must have been 15 whales! All three species (minke, fin, and humpback) were there! They were in groups for the most part, and we got some great close looks at a HUGE fin before we headed back to Boston. August definitely started out well!
~ Emily Griffin, Naturalist

Labels: crown, fin whale, fracture, humpbacks, minke whale

We came across Tear this afternoon heading to join up with another group of humpbacks. There must have been a lot of sand lance somewhere in the area because a lot of whales were heading into the area. We saw minke whales as well, and a quick glimpse of a minke whale as well! Towards the end of the trip, we saw a calf do a tail breach!
~ Emily Griffin, Naturalist

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

Labels: calf. flipper slapping, fin whale, humpbacks

We had a very active AM trip today, spotting at least 20 or more whales feeding! This was one of the largest grouping of whales I've seen so far this season! There were all types of feeding behaviors going on around our boat -- tail lobbing, bubble netting, and open mouth feeding. Among the humpback whales we saw were Rapier and her calf, and Linear. We also caught some looks at a Minke and a Fin whale who were probably taking advantage of the good food in the area. There was so much going on, it was hard to know where to look! It was a great chance to see how these animals get their food. As we pulled away, we even saw a quick breach from one of the humpbacks!
~Jackie O'Mara, Naturalist

Labels: bubble netting, fin whale, humpbacks, minke whale, open-mouth feeding, tail lobbing

During our PM trip we found a ton of whales! First, we came across a bunch of humpbacks feeding together. We were able to see some bubble netting and open mouth feeding from at least 5 humpbacks around the boat! There were also at least 5 or more other humpbacks in the distance feeding. Among the whales around us were Coral and Rapier and her calf. There was so much to see, it was hard to keep track of everything. We had a few whales tail lobbing very close to the boat, as well as in the distance. I think some passengers may have even been splashed by a big tail lob right off our bow! While all of this was going on, there were two minkes close by AND a pair of fin whales in the distance lunge feeding cooperatively. It was quite an exciting afternoon!
~Jackie O'Mara, Naturalist

Labels: Coral, fin whale, humpbacks, lunge feeding, minke whale, rapier, tail lobbing

We had a great day today, seeing all three species of our whales on BOTH trips! On our AM trip, we chased a few fin whales around and caught some quick glimpses of a minke whale. We then found a humpback mother and calf pair who we were able to approach very closely. These two stayed with us for the rest of the trip, giving us some great looks! I wasn't able to ID mom, but her and her adorable calf made it a great morning for us!
~Jackie O'Mara, Naturalist

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

This morning we came across some heavy fog and a bit of rain, but the whales didn't mind it! And luckily, the rain cleared as we reached the bank. Soon we came across some open mouth feeding! We had both fin whales and humpback whales working at an area of bait; the fins doing great lunges and the humpbacks cooperatively bubble feeding! We were able to identify Alphorn, Pinpoint, and Vulture out of the group feeding together.

Labels: Alphorn, bubble feeding, fin whale, pinpoint, Vulture

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 to brave some rain this morning, but we were able to find some whales! Our AM trip was unique in that we only saw fin and minke whales! We had a fin swimming close to our boat, even popping up for a very close look. It was great to get a real sense of the size of these whales. We had at least one other fin in the area, and while we were watching them, we had a minke appear for a few quick looks!
~Jackie O'Mara, Naturalist

Labels: fin whale, minke whale

We had an amazing day today in terms of whales, even if the weather wasn't the best! On our AM trip we first found Fulcrum and her calf. We got some nice looks, with Fulcrum's calf rolling and flipper slapping. Next we passed by three humpbacks doing some deep diving, but we continued on to another mother and calf. Mom was most likely Lavalier (we ran into her and her calf again on the PM trip and were able to positively ID her then). While the mother went on some dives, the calf breached! This calf was being very playful with us. As if this wasn't enough, we then proceeded to find at least four humpbacks doing some deep feeding as well as a pair of fin whales and a minke!
~ Jackie O'Mara, Naturalist

Labels: calf, fin whale, Fulcrum, Lavalier, minke whale, mother

Happy Fourth of July! Our afternoon trip on this beautiful day let us see a few whales we had seen on our morning trip and some Fin whales. We got some great looks at a mother and calf fin whale something we don't get to see all that often. A few other fin whales near by were lunge feeding. The humpbacks were also feeding we had about 10 different ones doing some open mouth feeding, blowing bubbles, and Pinpoint was there from this morning too! It was great to see that the whales were still doing so much feeding hours after our first trip. Some of the birds we saw on today's trip were Sooty, and Greater Shearwaters, several gulls, and some Wilson Storm Petrels.
~Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: fin whale, great shearwater, lunge feeding, pinpoint, sooty shearwaters, Wilson Storm Petrels

What a beautiful Fourth of July! The sun was out again and we had some feeding humpback whales! We saw Etch-a-Sketch doing some kick feeding right next to the boat ... Then we also got to see Pinpoint and Apex and her calf feeding with some huge open mouths, showing us their baleen plates! Plus to make it even better we saw some fin whales doing some lunge feeding! These fin whales are the second largest whale! All together we probably had about 6 different humpbacks!
~ Melisaa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

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

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

Wow it's already July! We canceled our morning trip today, due to some severe thunderstorms and the heavy fog. As we headed out on our afternoon trip we still had some fog but were able to find 3 humpbacks! We came across a mother and calf with an escort. I believe the mother was Lavalier. We were able to watch them for a while but then the fog rolled in pretty heavy and we lost them. As we moved around the area slowly we were able to pick the escort back up and then a few others! By the end of our trip we had about 4-6 feeding humpbacks and 2 lunge feeding fin whales! Just goes to show that even in the fog we still have hope and can still find the whales sometimes! One of the feeding humpbacks was a whale named Cajun, a whale we have seen several times this year.
~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

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

Labels: fin whale, flukes, humpbacks, 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

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

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

Photos submitted by a visitor.
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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

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

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.
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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

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

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

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

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 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

Lots of birds and whales today! Some of the birds we saw were: Jaegar, Cory and Greater Shearwaters, Wilson Storm Petrels, Herring and Greater Black-back Gulls, and a Common Tern. Some nice close looks at some minke whales. We even saw some White Sided Dolphins! Not to mention the Fin and Humpback whales. Humpbacks that we saw: Tectonic, Etch-a-Sketch, Percussion, Jabiru.

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

photo by naturalist Melissa Rocha

Fin whale

photo by naturalist Melissa Rocha

Humpback whale

On the July 9th trip, we came across a mother and her calf fin whale. Fin whales are a fast whale, and we don't get to usually see them at the surface for a long time, however this calf was putting on quite a show! The calf was rolling on it's side, and even breached right next to the boat!

As if that wasn't enough, we then found two different mother and calf pairs of humpback whales, with the calves breaching non stop! Something we don't get to see that often. One of the calves also came right up next to the boat to give everyone a great look.


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Labels: 2008 Season, calf, fin whale, humpback whale