From Yankee Fleet’s Weekly Whale Watching Report:
Here we go again! Where do we begin with such awesome sightings?!
Let’s start with the MOST spectacular of spectacular whale sightings last week. We saw Six Northern Right Whales On Sunday! 6 Right Whales is about 2% of their whole population! Imagine! Can you believe a Northern Right Whale mother and calf breaching over and over and over? Honestly, the most incredible behavioral display from this rotund, little whale! The Right Whale calf looked to be SO healthy and SO fat! As adult Right Whales weigh over one ton per foot and this “little” guy was probably 20 feet long and well over 20 tons! Truly an incredible whale sighting considering there were under 30 Right Whale calves born this past winter, and the population is only around 300 whales. On that same trip we saw about 7 Humpback Whales, 8 Fin Whales, 3 Minke Whales, a Basking Shark and a Harbor Seal, plus some great birds! That was all on one trip!

Top off the week with several great Humpback Whale feeding displays by Flask, Tornado and Nile. Other Humpback Whales seen include the first-ever named Humpback Whale — Salt. Other Humpback Whales seen were Liner, Clamp and Ember! The Humpback Whale Clamp was observed breaching, as well (see photo). In this photo, she is doing what is known as a chin breach. Thanks to Fred Goodwin of Mass. Audubon Society for his photos. We also have seen Basking Sharks and a Harbor Seal. A tremendous Week!

Bird sightings were good, as well! Sooty Shearwaters and Greater Shearwaters were observed each trip, as well as many Wilson’s Storm-petrels. We also have been seeing occasional Manx Shearwaters. Inshore, the “regulars” like the Greater Black-backed Gulls, Herring Gulls, Ring-billed Gulls, Double-crested Cormorants and Egrets were observed on a daily basis. Additionally, Bonaparte’s Gulls and a resident flock of Common Eiders were seen in Gloucester Harbor.