Whale Sightings 9/26/22 to 10/1/22 Please find the Naturalist Notes for the week of 9/26/22 to 10/1/22 from the onboard team of naturalists for our New England Whale Watching tour in partnership with the New England Aquarium.
09-26-22
10am Whale Watch Sightings
Hello all,
Today aboard the Asteria, the 10am whale watch made its way out towards Peaked Hill in search of whales and other marine life. After some searching, we spotted several blows in the distance. This turned out to be an array of 20+ humpbacks, as well as a few fin whales and minke whales. The humpbacks were doing a lot of moving around but several of them breached and flipper slapped! The highlight of the trip was a humpback whale named Diablo who was flipper slapping over and over again right near the boat! We also had a humpback whale named Vault give us some beautiful fluking dives near the boat as well. There was a very small humpback that was definitely very curious of our boat, swimming alongside us for several minutes! After some tremendous looks at all our humpbacks, plus some really awesome looks at a few fin whales and minke whales, we had to make our way back to Boston. It was a really amazing day out on the water!
Until next time,
Colin and Emily
09-26-22
12pm Whale Sightings
Good afternoon!
We boarded the Aurora and headed on a southerly course in search of whales for the 12 p.m. whale watch. Before reaching our destination, we were interrupted by three surfacing humpback whales! In this trio was Spoon, accompanied by Clamp, and a third, smaller whale that split off soon after. Spoon and Clamp soon began logging, and we were able to spend about an hour with them just lounging at the surface! A few other blows could be seen in the surrounding areas, somewhat surprising to see well west of Stellwagen Bank. Nonetheless, we spent a wonderful afternoon with two large ladies, enjoying their presence in the fall sun.
Flukes up!
Ashlyn and Chelsea
09-27-22
10am Whale Watch Sightings
Good afternoon all,
Aboard the Asteria, we headed to the Southeast corner of Stellwagen Bank determined to find whales. When we arrived, a frenzy of feeding whales greeted us! Whales in all directions were kick feeding, bubble feeding, and lunging! There were likely between 35-50 Humpback whales feeding in the area. Of all the whales, we have identified the following: Putter, Snare, Tracer, Lobo, Etch-A-Sketch, Multiply, Rune, Pinpoint, Alligator, and Valley 11 Calf. We also had at least four mom/calf pairs in the mix: Springboard and her 2022 Calf, Ganesh and her 22 Calf, Cosmos and her 22 Calf, and Buckshot and her 22 Calf. In addition, we got a brief look at a fin whale that surfaced amid all of the activity. In between the flurry of feeding, we also saw multiple breaches and flipper slapping from both adults and calves in the area!
It was an absolutely fantastic day on the water!
Eman & Laura H.
09-27-22
12pm Whale Watch Sightings
Happy Tuesday Whale Watchers!
Today the Aurora headed to the southeast corner of Stellwagen Bank in search of whales and other wildlife. As we got close to the tip of Cape Cod, we were greeted by a wall of spouts ahead of us. We had anywhere from 60 to 80 Humpback Whales in the vicinity, their behavior ranging from kick-feeding to bubble net feeding! We had whales in every single direction, as far as the eye could see. Despite the sheer number of whales, we have so far been able to ID Banyan, GOM-1505, GOM-1521, Alligator, Indiana, Aswan, Apex and her calf, Evolution, Etch-A-Sketch, Thalassa, Limpet, Combat, Putter, Pinpoint, Rune, Lobo, Snare, Osprey, Axle, Bounce’s 2016 Calf, Whirligig, Thumper, and none other than the Grande Dame herself, Salt with her calf, Miso! These whales were feeding all around us, with some of the young calves in the area throwing the occasional breach in the mix! It was truly a sight to behold. After getting so many amazing looks, we said goodbye to our very hungry whales and headed back to Boston. It was an incredible day on the water!
Until Next Time!
David & Chelsea
09-28-22
10am Whale Watch Sightings
Good afternoon,
On the Asteria we had a wonderful trip to the southern end of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary! We ended up quite close to Race Point beach, spotting about 20-25 humpbacks, and a few fin whales and minke whales! We also had large flocks of common terns – it’s been fun to see the differences in bird numbers and species each day! Before we even got the bank, we first spotted Pinball, who we had last seen far north on Jeffrey’s Ledge. When we arrived at Race Point, we first found Cosmos and calf – mom was busy kick feeding. We also spotted Vault, and Abyss and calf, along with one other mom and calf. We saw distance splashes of kick feeding in many directions, making it a spectacular day! As we left, both mom and calf pairs joined up in a larger group to feed. A great day on the water!
Cheers,
Laura & Emily
09-28-22
12pm Whale Watch Sightings
Good afternoon!
The 12:00 headed out on the Aurora towards the southern section of the Sanctuary. We saw a multitude of scattered blows and focused our time on Abyss and her 2022 calf! We had an utterly amazing trip with this mom and calf pair! These two whales “mugged our boat” – a behavior that is best described as sometimes the whales are as curious of us as we are of them. Abyss is known to be a whale to approach boats – and we got to watch in awe as both her and her calf swam around the vessel – popping their heads out of the water and checking us out. As we saw in 2020, Abyss began to even rub her head against the side of the boat. On top of this fabulous trip – we also had a minke whale mug our boat! This was by far the best trip I’ve ever had with a minke – as this smaller cetacean kept swimming along our vessel and checking us out. We have got to see a curious fin whale in the area!
Reluctantly, we turned back to Boston with gorgeous sea conditions.
Kate and Colin
09-29-22
10am Whale Watch Sightings
Good afternoon,
Today aboard the Aurora, we headed southeast towards the Race Point beach area where our past sightings had been. As we first left the harbor, we had our first sighting of white-winged scoters that have migrated in – another sign of the fall season upon us. As we got closer to Provincetown, we found many other bird species including gannets, great shearwaters, cory’s shearwaters, common terns, and flocks of Manx shearwaters, which are a bit smaller and usually aren’t as common to see. For whales, we found at least 5-7 humpback whales, as well as young curious minke that swam near our boat. We spent our trip with a pair of humpbacks, one of which was Thalassa, a calf of Salt. Then we took our rugged passengers back to shore!
Cheers,
Laura and Olivia
09-29-22
12pm Whale Watch Sightings
Hello all,
Today aboard the Asteria, the 12pm whale watch made its way towards the northwest corner of Stellwagen in search of whales and other marine life. After a little bit of searching, we spotted a pair of blows in the distance. This turned out to be a pair of humpback whales consisting of Dross and Mallard. These two were at first trucking it north, but the pair eventually settled into some probable deep feeding. Dross was spending a lot of time at the surface, and of course she did her signature high beautiful fluking dives! Towards the end of the trip, the pair came up very close to the boat a few times! After some amazing looks at our pair, we had to start heading back towards Boston. We also got some cool bonus looks at a very small fin whale before getting back to Boston harbor. It ended up being a great day out on Stellwagen Bank!
Until next time,
Colin and Kate
09-30-22
10am Whale Watch Sightings
Good afternoon,
The 10am whale watch headed south on the Asteria towards the southern section of Stellwagen Bank. We saw many scattered blows, and estimated there were around 10 humpbacks, 2 fin whales, and a minke whale! We spent most of our time with three individual humpbacks – which included Swimmer and Stump! We’ve haven’t seen Stump yet this season so it’s always great to add a new whale to our sightings list. We also got a great surprise look at a mola mola – who hung out next to our boat while our whales were taking dives!
Kate and Eman
09-30-22
12pm Whale Watch Sightings
Today the Aurora headed to MidBank in search of wildlife. We found ourselves with three Humpback Whales and a pod of Atlantic White Sided Dolphins. We first spent time with two mature Humpbacks, Dyad and Tongs, who came up next to the boat after some short dives. After noticing the dolphins, we moved over to find that they were next to a lone Humpback named Jabiru. They followed Jabiru on her dive, giving us a great indication where she would resurface. We got several looks at all three Humpbacks and some phenomenal close looks at our dolphins before we had to make our way back to Boston. What a great day!
Until Next Time!
David & Chelsea
10-01-22
10am Whale Watch Sightings
Good evening and happy first day of October!
The 10am whale headed out on the Asteria towards the middle of Stellwagen Bank in search of wildlife. After a bit of searching, we were ecstatic to find a multitude of blows in the area! We first spent our time with Nile and Dyad – who were surrounded by a pod of 50-75 Atlantic-white sided dolphins! The dolphins were absolutely fantastic – surrounding our boat while feeding and jumping out of the water! These dolphins seemed to be aggravating the humpbacks – and Nile even seemed to tail breach in frustration. We then moved on to A-Plus and Spoon. After watching A-Plus tail breach then dive, we finally moved on to Doric and Farfalle. This awesome pair was flipper slapping repeatedly, and we got to see Doric roll completely on her back a few times and “backstroke.” We spent the remainder of our time with these two surface active humpbacks before returning back to Boston.
Kate and David
10-01-22
12pm Whale Watch Sightings
Hello all,
Today aboard the Aurora, the 12pm whale watch made its way towards the mid bank region of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary in search of whales and other marine life. Through the wind and rain, we spotted a few blows in the distance. We started on a pair of humpback whales who turned out to be Spoon and A-Plus. These two were spending a lot of time at the surface so we were able to get some really great looks at them. Eventually these two split off, and Spoon then began tail breaching and lobtailing! After Spoon settled down, she gave us a beautiful fluking dive. We then got some brief but amazing looks at Lutris and Tongs. Tongs gave us a very high and beautiful fluking dive before we had to leave. It was a really great day on the water!
Flukes up,
Colin, Liza, and Olivia
10-01-22
2:30pm Whale Watch Sightings
Good Evening, Whale Watchers,
Today the Asteria headed to Mid-Bank with a hearty group of passengers in search of whales. We found ourselves with at least 8 Humpback Whales, split into four pairs. We started with some quick looks at Spoon and A-Plus before finding ourselves next to Dyad and Nile. They were travelling at the surface slowly before taking short dives. As we moved along, we found a pair which included a whale named Tongs, as well as a separate pair consisting of Doric and Farfalle. As the rain started and the wind really began to pick up, we saw the separate pairs start a very unpredictable but memorable bout of surface activity. We saw Farfalle tail breach right next to the boat, with Nile lobtailing a little further away! We saw some more distant splashes from some of the other pairs as well, making for a remarkable sight. As time wound down and seas began to build more, we reluctantly said goodbye to these whales and headed back to Boston. What a fantastic day!
Until Next Time,
David & Kate
More Images from This Week
Boston Whale Watching: Naturalist Notes – 9/26/22 to 10/1/22