Whale Sightings 9/12/22 to 9/18/22 Please find the Naturalist Notes for the week of 9/12/22 to 9/18/22 from the onboard team of naturalists for our New England Whale Watching tour in partnership with the New England Aquarium.
09-12-22
Whale Watch Sightings
Hello all,
The 10am whale watch aboard the Aurora made its way offshore in search of whales and other marine life. Through the large swell caused by the remnants of Hurricane Earl we made our way towards Peaked Hill. After some searching, we spotted a blow in the distance. It turned out to be Banyan the humpback whale. This whale was taking relatively short dives and spending a lot of time at the surface. We were able to get some absolutely fantastic looks at Banyan as he gave us several beautiful fluking dives! After some awesome looks at Banyan, we started to make the trek back to Boston. On our way home, we came across a very large pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins. This pod definitely had over 100 individuals! They were moving very slowly through the area so we were able to get some great looks at this very active pod of dolphins. Watching the clock, we had to head back to Boston. It ended up being a really great day out on the water!
Until next time,
Colin and Chelsea
09-12-22
12pm Whale Watch Sightings
Happy Monday Whale Watchers,
Today the Asteria headed north to Jeffrey’s Ledge in search of wildlife. After being stuck at the dock due to the hurricane this past weekend, we were eager to go exploring. As we got there, we got some amazing looks at a Mola Mola. This fish was swimming slowly at the surface, even poking its head out of the water! we pushed forward and found two massive Fin Whales. They were staying near the surface, likely resting. This allowed us to get some remarkable looks at their huge size! They stayed next to us, frequently breathing then floating just under the surface, casually suspended in the dark green water. With time running low, we said goodbye to our fin whales and headed back to Boston.
What a fun day on the water!
Until Next Time!
David & Emily
09-13-22
10am Whale Watch Sightings
Good Afternoon, Whale Watchers!
On this rainy and foggy day, the Sanctuary made its way towards Stellwagen Bank in search of wildlife. Before we got anywhere near the bank, our Captain Marc spotted a disturbance at the surface. Upon closer inspection, we realized it was a juvenile Humpback Whale! This whale was taking predictable 10-minute dives and doing some flipper slapping when it came back up to the surface. On one of the dives, we were waiting for the 10-minute mark, as we expected the young whale to surface any moment. All of a sudden, this animal launched out of the water right in front of us in a full breach! It was a spectacular sight! After another bout of flipper slapping, we spotted a small pod of Harbor Porpoises close by. We watched them for a few minutes before taking a little ride to see what else was around. We were delighted to find a Blue Shark swimming near the surface! While the shark’s name may give away what color it should be, this shark’s color and the gray skies gave it a vibrant, almost iridescent shade of blue. It was absolutely gorgeous. After saying goodbye to our shark, we made our turn back home to Boston. Despite the limited visibility, today ended up being was a once in a lifetime day on the water!
Until Next Time!
David & Chelsea
09-13-22
12pm Whale Watch Sightings
Good afternoon,
Despite some fog today, we were able to find a curious juvenile humpback whale west of Stellwagen Bank! Along the way we also spotted a minke whale and a mola mola. This particular juvenile was acting very stealthy – we would often see a fluke print appear (circular patch on the water) before the small whale would come up – often several meters away. It made it quite a fun guessing game to see where this whale would pop up next! At one point, this juvenile appeared next to our boat, and even swam under us! Before we left, we got a great look at its fluke as it was taking a deeper dive.
Cheers,
Laura & Eman
09-14-22
10am Whale Watch Sightings
Good afternoon,
The 10am whale watch headed out on the Sanctuary towards Stellwagen Bank. Searching far and wide in windy weather, we traversed across the majority of the bank until we ecstatically found a single humpback! This small juvenile was the same one that our whale watching boats found yesterday and had traveled quite a distance from the previous day! Despite very windy weather, we were able to find this smaller whale because of its explosive bout of surface activity! From a distance we saw this whale breaching and flipper slapping – and it didn’t stop once we got there! We also got to see tail breaching, rolling, lobtailing, and “backstroking” (when the whale is completely upside down so both flippers are out of the water). This whale seemed to “goofily” breach, often turning its body and flippers at funny angles as it fell. Towards the end of our trip, the juvenile suddenly swam towards us and breached repeatedly directly off the starboard side!!!! It then rolled and swam right in front of our vessel – with its flippers extended! We continued to get some absolutely fantastic looks at this whale breaching and splashing around before returning back to Boston!
Kate and Emily
09-14-22
12pm Whale Watch Sightings
Hello all,
Today aboard the Asteria, the 12pm whale watch made its way towards the southern part of Stellwagen Bank in search of whales and other marine life. After a little bit of searching, we spotted a blow and a splash in the distance. This turned out to be a very small humpback whale. This whale was continuously flipper slapping! This little whale even double flipper slapped a few times! This whale seemed to tire for a little bit going on some longer dives. This rest did not last long because this juvenile then went back to flipper slapping! This whale even breached right next to the boat a few times! After one last breach, and of course a beautiful fluking dive we had to head back to Boston. It ended up being a really amazing trip on Stellwagen Bank!
Until next time,
Colin and Olivia
09-15-22
10am Whale Watch Sightings
Hello all,
Today aboard the Sanctuary, the 10am whale watch made its way offshore in search of whales and other marine life. The howling winds created a lot of white caps making sightings conditions difficult, but we never lost hope. After some searching, we spotted a blow in the distance. This turned out to be Crisp the humpback whale! When we first arrived in the area, which ended up being right off of Gloucester, Crisp came up right next to our boat and gave us a beautiful fluking dive! Crisp then began to do some moving but we were still able to get some incredible looks and each time he gave us a really beautiful fluking dive. We also got some really incredible looks at a Mola mola who swam right next to the boat! After one last close approach from Crisp, we had to make our way back to Boston. It ended up being a really good day out offshore!
Colin
09-17-22
10am and 2:30pm Whale Watches
What an absolutely INCREDIBLE and AMAZING day!
The 10am whale watch headed south on the Asteria towards Peaked Hill. Following reports of a whale “pile” we were ecstatic to see 40-50 humpback whales after a long drive. These whales were everywhere – creating a smorgasbord of feeding activity. Everywhere we looked, there were groups of whales bubble net feeding, kick-feeding, or lunging. Birds were swarming, fish were flying, and the water was frothy green with activity. We watched in awe as these humpbacks joined in groups to feed, blowing bubbles in perfect circles, before dissipating to join other individuals in the area. We had basically every possible feeding behavior in view – giving passengers a truly remarkable display of the majesty of humpbacks. So far, we’ve been able to identify Dome, Tear, Combat, Evolution, Pixar, Vault, Lava, Lobo, Multiply, Alligator, Jumanji, Cat Eyes, GOM-1521, Banyan, with many more to go! We haven’t seen many of these individuals yet, so it was awesome to see some new flukes this far into the season.
Our 2:30 whale watch headed south again and were pleased to find an abundance of whales again! Many of the smaller groups of humpbacks whales had scattered – and we saw more individuals kick-feeding and solo bubble cloud feeding. We estimate there were around 25-35 humpbacks on our afternoon trip! Some new flukes we saw in the afternoon included Sanchal and her 2022 calf, and Cosmos (who hasn’t yet been seen this season) with a potential calf! A stark difference in our afternoon trip included the 8-10 lunging fin whales, and over 20 lunging minke whales feeding around our vessel! I truly have never had a better trip with minkes whales, as these smaller cetaceans were circling the boat, lunging on all sides and showing off their pleats. Having all three species surrounding our boat meant passengers got to see a massive range of feeding techniques and styles – from a humpback smashing its tail against the water while kick-feeding to a fin whale explosively lunging sideways out of the water. We also got to see a mola mola next to our vessel and scattered breaching from some distant humpbacks!
Words can truly not to describe how utterly fantastic both trips were today – hopefully the abundance of photos can attempt to show just a fraction of what we saw. Also, huge shout out to the amazing intern Liza for taking data on all the whales!!!!
Kate and Liza
09-17-22
11am & 2:30pm Whale Watch Sightings
Hello all,
Today aboard the Aurora, the 11am whale watch made its way offshore in search of whales and other marine life. Our journey took us to Peaked Hill where we saw numerous blows in the distance. There were over 20 different humpback whales feeding! Some were kick feeding, others were bubble net feeding! Most of the time we spent was with the grand dame of Stellwagen, the very famous Salt and her 2022 calf by the name of Miso. Salt and another adult were bubble net feeding, and they even fed not far from our boat! They did this several times before the other adult veered off. We spent time with Salt and Miso who were slowly traveling at the surface. Salt gave us a very high and beautiful fluking dive™ before we moved on to more feeding humpbacks. I am still working through the ID’s of some of the whales in the area but we got some great looks at Infinity before we had to head home.
The 330pm whale watch headed towards the same area in hopes of similar success as the morning trip. We were happy to see that the whales had not moved much since the first trip as we arrived in the area. What was very neat was that there were way more minke whales than on the morning trip. The minkes did not disappoint as they were continuously lunging at the large amounts of small fish in the water. Several minke whales even lunged right near the boat! The humpbacks were no longer bubble net feeding, but they were still being very active. There were multiple sporadic breaches, flipperslaps, and lobtails from all of the humpbacks. What really caught my eye was that there appeared to be a full-grown humpback playing with a patch of seaweed that was drifting in the area. This humpback (who I am still working to ID) was surfacing with the seaweed on its head and running the seaweed over its pectoral flipper. At one point this individual even rolled over swimming on its back just beneath the surface under the patch of seaweed. Before today I have only seen this behavior in person once, so I was very fascinated at watching this adorable humpback swim through the patch of seaweed. Not much longer after this, we saw Buckshot with her 2022 calf, and the calf was also dragging its flippers through the patch of seaweed. A very adorable sight to see! Buckshot and her calf gave us a beautiful fluking dive before we got some looks at Sanchal and her 2022 calf who were cruising through the area. We also got some looks at Salt and many more humpbacks before we had to leave the area. It was a really amazing day out on the water, with an amazing sunset to cap it off!
Until next time,
Colin and Olivia
09-18-22
10am & 2:30pm Whale Sightings
Good evening whale enthusiasts!
This morning the Asteria headed out towards peaked hill in search of whales, and found 40-50 feeding humpbacks, and at least 5 fin whales! We spent some time with many feeding humpbacks including Piano, Pixar, Vault, Ember, and Reflection! As we left, we even got to see a whale breach behind us.
The 2:30 pm trip returned to find that the whales had spread out. We spent most of our trip with scattered humpbacks including Cat Eyes, Samovar and her calf, and Etch-A-Sketch 14 calf, as well as some others we are still working to ID! On our way home, we were surprised by a breach from a humpback, who continued to breach 7 more times, making for some incredible last looks!
Overall a fantastic day on the bank!
Sydney and Emily
09-18-22
11am and 3:30pm Whale Watch Sightings
Good evening!
In keeping with the theme of the weekend, we spent a spectacular day aboard the Aurora on Peaked Hill. We headed out for the 11 a.m. whale watch, spotting two mola molas while underway. Arriving at our destination, we found ourselves surrounded by blows! All in all, we estimated about 40 humpbacks, half a dozen fin whales, and 2-3 minke whales. The humpbacks treated us to awesome displays of behavior, including kickfeeding, bubble nets, dragging, and some surface activity thrown in! At one point, a well-known male named Putter rolled over post feed, and began a series of lobtailing! A friend of his then began to tail breach, and we noticed some full spinning breaches from distant whales! Other IDs from the trip included Rocker, Springboard, and Vault! We slowly cruised to the west, watching some more bubble nets form as we made our way, and even being treated to a double breach! We continued to make our way home, excited to return in the afternoon.
The 3:30 pm whale watch headed in the direction we had just returned from, but we ended up meeting whales a little further west, on the southwest corner of Stellwagen Bank. About 19 humpbacks, four fin whales, and a handful of minke whales could be seen feeding in the area! Our trip started off with an absolutely breathtaking look of two of the largest fin whales I have ever seen. After they passed us by, we met up with a group if 7 feeding humpback whales, including Dusky, Infinity, and Tectonic! They treated us to amazing looks, blowing elegant bubble nets and dragging at the surface. They began to quiet down, and soon our travels took us to a group of five humpback whales consisting of Coral, Etch-a-Sketch, GOM-1521, Rocker, and a T5 I’m still working to ID. Our trip wrapped up with this group, as they slowly traveled north. After some last looks, we turned into the setting sun, having spent a fantastic day at sea.
Flukes up!
Ashlyn and Maddie
More Images from This Week
Boston Whale Watching: Naturalist Notes – 9/12/22 to 9/19/22