Whale Sightings 10/10/22 to 10/16/22 Please find the Naturalist Notes for the week of 10/10/22 to 10/16/22 from the onboard team of naturalists for our New England Whale Watching tour in partnership with the New England Aquarium.  

 

10-10-22

10am Whale Watch Sightings

Happy Monday Whale Watchers,

Today the Asteria made its way towards the southwest corner of Stellwagen Bank in search of whales. To the absolute delight of all passengers on board, we started our trip with a pod of Atlantic White-Sided Dolphins! These dolphins were very likely chasing fish beneath the surface, and were surrounded by some beautiful Northern Gannets, which were diving down into the water around these dolphins. After some great looks, we continued on and found a lone Humpback Whale kick feeding at the surface. We are still attempting to identify this individual, who lifted its mostly black tail high into the air with each feeding kick. We spotted some other spouts in the area as well, so after watching our hungry lone whale for some time, we made our way over to a mom and calf Humpback Whale. This turned out to be Zeppelin and her calf. The calf was repeatedly flipper slapping, with an occasional tail breach thrown into the mix as well! At one point, Zeppelin herself rolled onto her side for an impressive bout of flipper slapping! All this commotion seemed to attract the attention of a more distant Humpback, named Landslide, who began lobtailing for a few minutes! After Landslide settled down, our active calf continued its splashy behavior. This made for an unforgettable trip! After saying goodbye to this pair, we saw another group of Humpbacks, with one even breaching as we arrived! One of the whales in this group was a whale named Palette, with the others still needing to be identified. It was the perfect way to end this fantastic day on the water!

Until Next Time!

David & Emily

 

10-10-22

12pm Whale Watch Sightings

Selamat petang

We had a fantastic day aboard the Aurora as we traveled to the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. On our way out we spotted a pod of 150-250 Atlantic White-Sided dolphins, many of which were porpoising out of the water! After that great start, we arrived near the SW corner of the bank to find 5-7 scattered humpback whales. We spent our time with Buckshot and her 22 calf, who has grown quite large! This calf surprised with a full breach, and shortly after mom made an impressive tail breach, followed by several lobtails. The cherry on top of our trip was another large pod of 500+ dolphins, surrounded by diving feeding gannets! A great day on the water.

Sorakan

Laura and Chelsea

 

10-11-22

10am Whale Watch Sightings

Hello,

Good afternoon! We had a beautiful sunny and calm day on our 10am whale watch (a rare treat in October). On our way out, we spotted many gannets and scoters, another sign of the fall migration. We then found a mom calf humpback pair, Owl and her new calf near the SW corner of Stellwagen Bank. Our first sign of these two was a breach from the calf, who subsequently nursed and then took a long nap while mom humpback was feeding below the surface. We left this sleepy calf and slowly headed back to Boston, but as we left, Owl began doing full breaches and flipper slapping, so our captain Jim turned back around treated us to some bonus looks of this pair. Owl’s breaches must have woken up the calf, because the calf also started breaching. Afterwards, the two them started simultaneously flipper slapping. A spectacular end to the day!

Sorakan

Laura & Chelsea

 

10-12-22

10am Whale Watch Sightings

Selamat tengah hari!

The 10am whale watch headed out on the Aurora towards the southern section of Stellwagen Bank. After a bit of searching, we were ecstatic to find 15-20 humpback whales spread out in small associations! We watched in awe as groups of 3 to 5 would join together, surface as a large group, then separate to join other whales. We saw multiple breaches in the distance and got amazing looks on all sides – no matter where we looked, we got to see groups of whales at the surface! Throughout our trip we got mugged by a duo of humpbacks – this pair, which included Crossbeam, kept swimming in circles around our vessel! Other individuals in the area that we’ve been able to ID so far include Arcus, A-Plus, Buzzard, Chromosome, Venom, Venom 22 Calf, Ganesh 14 Calf, Spell, and Spell’s 22 Calf who kept rolling over near our boat. It was absolutely fantastic whale soup!

Reluctantly we turned back to Boston after a bout of fantastic whales!

Kate, Emily, and Olivia

 

10-16-22

10am Whale Watch Sightings

Good Evening Whale Watchers,

This morning the Asteria headed out to Stellwagen Bank with a hearty group of passengers. As we approached the southeast corner, we were greeted by several spouts ahead of us. There seemed to be a few small groups of Humpback Whales, taking some longer dives. However, as luck would have it, we happened to come across a pair of Humpbacks hanging out at the surface, and this was no ordinary pair. It was a mom and calf pair! More specifically, it was a whale named Samara and her calf. They were resting at the surface, unbothered by our presence. We floated alongside them, getting some incredible looks at them. This young calf is such a promising sight, as it represents one more of these beautiful animals into this recovering population. With time running out, these whales began to wake up and Samara lifted her tail flukes out of the water, going on a deeper dive. It was a phenomenal way to end today’s trip, and a great start to our day on the water!

Until Next Time!

David, Colin and Emily

 

10-16-22

2:30pm Whale Watch Sightings

Hai semua,

Today aboard the Asteria, the 230pm whale watch made its way towards the southern portion of Stellwagen Bank in search of whales and other marine life.  After a little bit of searching, we spotted several blows in the distance.  We spotted several different humpback whales.  We spent time with a larger group consisting of Toboggan and her calf, Venom and her calf, Chunk, and a few other whales I am still working to ID.  Venom’s calf was very curious of our boat, even spy hopping not far from the boat!  The highlight of the trip was when the group popped up right next to the boat!  The group gave us a beautiful close approach aweing everyone on the boat.  After several more incredible looks at our group, and of course some beautiful fluking dives, we had to head back to Boston.  It was a great afternoon out on the water!

Flukes ke atas,

Colin, Emily, and David

 

 

Lebih Banyak Imej daripada Minggu Ini

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boston Whale Watching: Naturalist Notes – 10/10/22 to 10/6/22