Fortunately for us, we had another opportunity to jump on a whale-watching trip our of Gloucester, on the North-east coast of Mass, after a truly wonderful one when we were over last summer (see here). Three weeks later than last years', the species dynamic and variety were significantly different, but just as entertaining....
I'll deal with the birds in the next post, but for cetaceans, it was very different - no Fin Whales or dolphins this time, but no fewer than 25 Humpbacks - and oh boy, what a show....
To say they were entertaining would be the understatement of the decade, and we had hours of fun watching them doing pretty much everything a Humpback can. We had multiple, co-ordinated full breaches from up to five whales together; many rolls, tail flips and smashes;
...prolonged sessions of co-operative interactions - including pec-slapping, slow-rolling and loud trumpeting! - right by the boat, completely unconcerned (or inspired?) by our presence.
We eventually had to leave them all to it, but what a performance - certainly the most prolonged, close-up and entertaining I've ever seen from Humpbacks.
We also had a couple of Minkes, and two close sightings of Ocean Sunfish (or Mola Molas as they're called over there - their scientific name and a much cooler monicker) - but it was the Humpbacks who more than stole the show.
Huge thanks to brother-in-law Ned for the better of these photos - nice work indeed ;-)
