5/16/2026 - Stellwagen Bank: Baby Whale & White-sided Dolphins

     A couple weekends back I forewent a peak bird migration locally and took a trip to Rhode Island.  My wife and I met up with my daughter and son-in-law, and we all took a whale watching excursion out of Plymouth, MA.  Some of the birds I miss in May I can look for in September and October when they return south.  They just might not be as colorful as they were going north.

The whale watching fleets in Massachusetts tour Stellwagen Bank.  Stellwagen Bank is an 842 square mile national marine sanctuary situated in the Gulf of Maine, between Cape Anne and Cape Cod.  It is an important feeding ground for several species of whales, such as humpbacks, minke, fin, sei and right whales.  My daughter and I took one of these trips last summer and had great, up-close views of humpback whales resting at the surface, oblivious to our presence.  My wife has joined me on a few local trips out of Cape May, NJ.  This was my son-in-law’s first such trip.

While I had been biting at the bit to get out and see whales, I was also hoping to see Atlantic white-sided dolphins.  I have seen at least six species  of dolphins in New Jersey waters: Tamanend’s bottlenose, common bottlenose, striped, Atlantic spotted, Risso’s and common dolphins.  Tamanend’s and common bottlenose dolphins were once one species but two distinct populations.  They are now two separate, full species.  Though technically not a dolphin, I have also seen one harbor porpoise, as well as long-finned and short-finned pilot whales which are related closer to dolphins than whales.  The white-sided dolphins have been on my wish list for a few years.  They are a cold-water species and rare for the Garden State.  We did not see any last summer.  I chose to go earlier this time in hopes that the water temperature would be better than it was in July and August.  

We had a nice day for the trip.  The ride out to the whale grounds was a little boring with not much to see.  I did notice at one point that a few people thought they saw a dolphin, but when I looked in the area, I saw a minke whale.  Beginner whale watchers seem to make that misidentification.  When we reached the sanctuary, it took a little bit of searching until any blow spouts were spotted.  As we got closer to our targets, a young humpback was seen breaching out of the water.  Then it breached again, and again and again.  We got as close as safe and responsible whale watching guidelines allow and found that we had come upon a mother humpback and her calf.  Being born in southern waters earlier in the year, the calf was only a few months old.  The young mammal was having a blast learning how to be a whale.  With its mother staying nearby, the youngster kept leaping out of the water, twisting and splashing without a care in its aquatic world.  I mentioned to my son-in-law to consider himself lucky.  Activity like this just doesn’t happen.  In between jumps it would swim by the boat checking us out, often poking its head out of the water to look at us.  It was as intrigued with us as we were with it.

Month's old humpback calf breaching.   © S. Weiss

Humpback calf getting familiar with the tour boat.   © S. Weiss

Humpback calf checking us out.   © S. Weiss

We spent the bulk of our time with the pair. Why leave something as awesome as that?!  But when another whale watching boat approached, we moved on to another pair of humpback whales in the vicinity.  These other whales were adults, and they were intensely interacting with each other. They were not feeding and the boat’s naturalist stated that the whales are not known to breed in the area.  Whatever they were doing created a frenzy of splashing at the surface.  It was during this encounter when a pod of dark colored dolphins appeared.  They were quickly identified as Atlantic whited sided dolphins.  The smaller mammals pleased the onlookers as they zipped around and under the whales and boat.  An already good trip became even better, and soon after it was time to head back to port.

Atlantic white-sided dolphins.   © S. Weiss

  As we headed back, the on-board naturalist said she counted over 30 breaches by the youngster!  She tried to put this incredible encounter into perspective.  She stated something like maybe one in ten trips where any whales are seen (some trips return without any whale sightings) do you witness a breach.  Multiple breaches are even more rare.

One of the whales raising and slapping it flipper on the water at the end of the day.   © S. Weiss

We all took this act as the whales waving goodbye as we started our way back to port.

Most whale watching companies employ naturalists to explain what we see as well as document the whales and their activities.  Organizations such as Happywhale,  maintain databases and catalogs of whales locally and or globally.  Individual humpback whales can be identified by the undersides of their tales.  The ridges, bumps and color pattern of a whale’s tail is as unique as a human’s fingerprint.  The mother whale gave very few raised tale dives that showed the underside pattern.  No one on either boat captured an identifiable photo.  I took many photos and thought I got snaps of a quick glimpse of her tail, but unfortunately the playback feature of my camera was not working.  The naturalist could not identify the whale by name from the printed catalog she had.  She could not say if we saw a new whale and calf or a returning whale with a new calf.

Days later back at home, I was able to download the hundreds of photos I took that day.  There, amongst the good, clear photos was a sequence of shots with a tail rising then disappearing underwater.  Most times when a humpback makes a deep dive its tail rises completely out of the water as it descends.  Our mystery whale never did this, yet I was still able to capture enough of her tail to see a pattern.  With fingers crossed, I submitted my photos to Happywhale.  Within two days I received some positive feedback.  Happywhale used my photos to match photos from the Gulf of Maine Humpback Whale Catalog and the North Atlantic Humpback Whale Catalog to identify her as Photon.

Flukes of Photon.   © S. Weiss

One of the photos used to identify our whale mother.

Photon is over 17 years old and a regular visitor to the Bay of Fundy.  A naturalist from Nova Scotia, Canada messaged me that she is very familiar with Photon and provided some more information on her.  The calf we saw is at least her third.  Photon had a calf in 2009, identified as Teatime.  Teatime and Photon were seen near each other just last summer and a calf she birthed in 2022 was spotted in New Brunswick, Canada.  Photos I submitted of the other two whales helped identify one of them as Gharial.  Gharial, a regular along the East Coast, is at least 7 years old since it was first photographed in 2019 off of Virginia.  Gharial has been recorded off of New Jersey nine times since 2019. 

Adding to the research and study of these wonderful creatures gives me a more personal connection to each individual.  The trips go from whale watching to whale bonding.

Sooty shearwater.   © S. Weiss

The only sea bird of note on the trip.