Today was our first trip in a few days, since we've had some not-so-great weather here in New England lately. But it turned out to be a nice, sunny day! We found yet another mom and calf humpback pair out on the Bank. Mom didn't fluke for us, so we were not sure who it was, but they put on a great show nonetheless. At first, this pair was going on some very long dives, but then it seemed that the calf got tired of diving. It opted to hang out at the surface with us while mom dove some more. The calf was feeling a little playful and began rolling and flipper slapping, with mom coming up from dives every now and then. The light worked in such a way that we could see the calf rolling around under the water! We also got some great looks at this little whale's belly as it floated on it's back!

~Jackie O'Mara, Naturalist

Labels: flipper slapping, humpback, mother and calf, rolling

Labels: calf, humpbacks, mother, Nile, rolling, tail breaching

Labels: Coral, humbbacks, rolling

What a great afternoon trip! We had a mother and calf pair to start, we got some great looks at the calf, who was doing a ton of breaching, and rolling all around. Don't know who the Mom was as she never gave us great looks at her. Then we decided to go check out some other whales that were near by and found several other humpbacks on was also breaching and rolling around, and some of the others were doing some feeding. Super close looks at a pair of them. We know that two of these humpbacks were Pixar and Sloop.
~ Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist, photos by Melissa Rocha

Labels: breaching, calf, mother, pixar, rolling, Sloop

We ran into BOTH mom and calf pairs from this morning on our PM trip, and they were still doing some great behaviors! Lavalier and her calf showed up first-- we could see mom tail breaching as we approached! The calf also gave us some rolls and flipper slaps. We then found Fulcrum and her calf. The calf began breaching right next to the boat! We got a few more rolls from Fulcrum's calf, while Lavalier and her calf approached us and Lavalier began tail breaching again!
~Jackie O'Mara, Naturalist

Labels: calf, flipper slapping, Fulcrum, Lavalier, mother, rolling, tail breaching

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

Photos by Melissa Rocha

We had the most AMAZING morning trip today! Such a great way to celebrate World Ocean's Day! We had three humpbacks all together they were breaching when we first got to them. One of them breached another time right next to the boat, and then they kept up with lots of different activities! They all started to roll on their sides and flipper slap, and a couple of times all the way over on their backs showing off their bellies! We got great looks at the grooved undersides. I have never seen three adult humpbacks all rolling around like that in unison! The three that we had were Ursa, Belly, and Wyoming. And we heard from another Whale Watch boat that they had a couple of humpbacks that were doing similar activities not far away.
~Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: Belly, breaching, flipper slapping, rolling, Ursa, Wyoming

We had another beautiful day on the water today! Our morning excursion started off with a quick look at two fin whales. We were also lucky to get some close looks at a humpback mother and (very playful) calf traveling with an escort. I was not able to positively ID the mother, but based on the dorsal fin, it may have been Anchor again. We got a terrific show from the calf, who decided to roll around and float on it's back at the surface while mom and the escort were going on some deeper dives.

~Jackie O'Mara, Naturalist

Labels: Anchor, calf, humpbacks, rolling

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

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 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

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

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

photo by Naturalist Melissa Rocha

Whales have been super active the last few days, and today was no different. On the morning trip we had one animal breaching nonstop! Then we found Crown and her calf with Tear doing some rolling and flipper slapping right next to the boat! Then Jabiru decided to do the same, but wanted to show off it's breaching skills and did some full and chin breaches for us. In the afternoon we saw Tear again but this time with a different mother calf pair. So many whales out and active today. Scanning the horizon we saw several other blows and breaches further out, even a double breach in the distance.


photo by Naturalist Melissa Rocha

The best part was we got to see some Atlantic White Sided Dolphins!! They were hanging out with a few of the humpbacks.

subscribe

Labels: 2008 Season, dolphins, flipper slapping, humpback whale, rolling

photo by naturalist Melissa Rocha

photo by naturalist Melissa Rocha

Today's trips were phenomenal! In the morning we had Pepper a female humpback first seen in 1978! Also seen that morning were several other females; Nile, Anchor, and Lavalier. In the Afternoon we found Frisbee a fairly young whale. Frisbee decided to give everyone a real treat by doing all of the following: flipper slapping, rolling, tail lobbing, and even breaching the entire trip!

Labels: 2008 Season, breaching, flipper slapping, humpback whale, rolling, tail lobbing