Today was overcast but quite enjoyable in terms of sea conditions and air temperatures offshore. We traveled about 31 miles offshore, east of Stellwagen Bank and the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary.
As we moved through an area with quite a few seabirds and gulls, we were welcomed by a humpback named Marsh. Marsh seemed to be searching for bait below the surface for this animal was traveling very unpredictably. Finally, Marsh seemed to settle down and did indeed start to feed.
Marsh was coming up to the surface with large mouth fulls of food and water. This young humpback whale has a distinct dorsal fin with a curved cut out of its trailing edge. Since Marsh wasn't spending much time at the surface we decided to move on to watch a pair of finbacks.
One of the finback whales, also called finners, also had a distinct dorsal fin. This animal had a small chunk missing out of its dorsal fin and seemed to be a little bigger than the other one traveling with it. They also seemed to be feeding since they were traveling around in a circular motion. In this area, we had good looks at greater shearwaters, and a Northern gannet.
Great day offshore with lots of wonderful sightings and great folk aboard the boat!
