![]() ![]() Given their sluggish behavior, imagine our surprise when they suddenly rocketed up out of the water in front of us before going into a stunning triple breach! While the mystery whale slipped away, Rocker and Joy continued to breach and flipper slap, with Rocker even pooping during a lobtail (see photo)! At one point, they were both flipper slapping right next to our boat, giving us some unforgettable views. We found a slow-moving trio of Humpback Whales that consisted of Joy, Rocker and a whale who still needs to be identified. We finally made it to the eastern part of the bank again to find that the large groups of Humpbacks had spread out a little bit, but there were still several whales in the area. Not too far from our destination, we spotted a passing Fin Whale, who gave us a great close look before going on a dive. This animal soon settled into leisurely travel away from us, so we decided to press on towards the bank once again. ![]() We had barely gotten past Deer Island in Boston Harbor before we saw some big splashes! We had found a juvenile Humpback Whale, just a stone’s throw from the dock. We then headed back out on the Sanctuary for the 2:30 pm trip, but this trip would take a very exciting turn. Buzzard and another Humpback had began breaching and lob-tailing! With those last looks, we said goodbye to our whales and headed for home, eager to see what the afternoon would bring. We also had some Minke Whales and a Fin Whale in the mix! We watched these animals continue to gorge themselves all around us, when we suddenly noticed some big splashes out ahead. While some have yet to be identified, we were able to identify Buzzard, Nazca, Buckshot and calf, Tear, Soot, Mira, Draco, Piano, Dyad, Tilt, Etch-A-Sketch, Splice, Condensation, Orbit, Iris, and Lariat mixing and matching in these whale clusters. We watched in awe as at least 12 Humpbacks surfaced through the bubbles, mouths full of fish next to us! There was also another huge group not too far away, with individual Humpbacks kick-feeding in between the two groups. ![]() We were delighted to see that this supergroup even blew a bubble ring right in front of us. They would blow a huge ring of bubbles, then come up through the center, mouths wide open. We must have had at least 50 Humpback Whales in the area, with an enormous group feeding cooperatively nearby. We headed out further east into Stellwagen Bank and were greeted by spouts as far as we could see. We started with the 10 am trip aboard the Sanctuary. Today’s trips were absolutely unforgettable! It was a fantastic day on the water and there was even a close approach from a minke whale! There were also many seabirds in the area that the passengers got up close and personal with! Satisfied, we returned to Boston! Basically they were doing every fun behavior for tourists to enjoy without showing their flukes for us to identify them from. These whales were breaching, flipper slapping, and tail breaching. However, there were something close to thirty humpbacks in the area. And boy did we find them! So far we have only been able to ID two of these very surface active whales: Tear and Condensation. Today the Aurora headed out to the middle of Stellwagen Bank, to the far east in search of whales. The minke whales, fin whales, and Atlantic white sided dolphins along with great shearwaters and Wilson’s storm petrels rounded out the amazing day! Once again, I can’t find the words to describe the experience! From there, we centered ourselves to enjoy the whales around us- Crossbeam, Lariat, Hippocampus, Aerospace, Ghost, Splice, Wyoming, Tear, Piano, Mira, Iris, Fex, Windrose, and Touche- with the most spectacular display of open mouth feeding. Splice seemed to use our boat to back some fish up against while it kick fed and surfaced with a huge open mouth mere feet away from us! It then continued to investigate and possibly rub against the hull until we were able to creep away. From there we watched in awe as groups of up to 6-7 individuals mixed among singles and pairs, all blowing bubble nets and gorging on sand lance. These last few days have been fantastic! 75 feeding humpback whales… unreal! We were still a mile or two away when we noticed two whales flying through the air and landing in massive splashes.
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