We went whale watching, leaving right from the Boston Harbor, and it was fantastic! The water was extremely rough (plenty of people on board got sick just getting out there.) The whale feeding ground called Stellwagen Bank is barely an hour via high-speed catamaran and provides prime whale watching this time of year.
We learned a lot about the feeding habits of whales (primarily humpbacks), and why this area is a popular spot along their migration route - but I won't bore you with those details, you can google that info on your own. The few pictures posted here are to give you some perspective of how close some whales got to the boat and how rough the water was.One of the marine biologists on board was talking to us about how rare and unexplainable it is that humpbacks will occasionally do a full-body breach out of the water. Just as she's saying there's barely a 1-in-10 chance of people seeing this (and she's been on the water every day for the past 3 weeks without seeing one) we got an upfront close encounter of it with our own eyes!
A humpback whale flew out of the water, head first, and came crashing down on it's back. It seemed to be just feet from the boat and where Aleks and I were standing. It was amazing! We saw it again for a second time, a bit further out, and then a tail or fin crash the surface. It was spectacular!
We were so caught up in all the excitement we didn't capture much on the camera. We got enough shots of some backs arching out of the water, blow-holes as they surface, and a few tails as they dive back into deeper waters. There's nothing like seeing a full whale breach the surface in person out in the water with you!
We were glad we took the day to enjoy time together and experience something in the Boston area we wouldn't ordinarily do. Enjoy these short video clips of what little action we caught on camera....
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