Today we set off aboard the 10am whale watch with a cold breeze, but sunny skies. We made our way out to the Northwest corner of Stellwagen Bank and immediately spotted blows in the area. We cruised over to investigate these smaller blows and found ourselves observing multiple sei whales. As we tried to track these quick moving marine mammals, some splashing at the surface caught our attention and we decided to investigate.

This exploring led us right into one of the most amazing feeding frenzies I have ever witnessed. Hundreds of birds flocked over head while a giant pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins zipped all around the vessel and we soon realized we had two feeding humpbacks right next to our boat. We watched in awe as these animals displayed their powerful kick-feeding skills, followed by amazing open mouth feeding. All of a sudden though, this duo of humpbacks turned to a trio as a third humpback came to join the feeding party! We were able to ID two of these humpbacks as Lynx and Sundown.  These humpback were not the only ones feasting however.  Two gigantic fin whales joined in as well and our boat was soon surround in every direction with unbelieve feeding displays. 

As we set off on the 2:30pm whale watch, our sunny skies had turned to rain, but our whales certainly didn’t seem to mind. Back on the bank, we once again found our toothed whales from the morning, our Atlantic white-sided dolphins. Soon we spotted blows all around the bank and we went exploring. This led us to seeing many different species including fin whales, multiple humpbacks (one a familiar female named Nile), and a spectacular skim feeding display by a sei whale. This specific sei whale sped along the surface and gave passengers an incredible view of a species we do not often get to see out in our waters.  A truly special day on the Bank!

— Lorna, Julia, and Chrissy