A Whale of a Time

While transporting a boat down from Portland, Maine to Nantucket last week the Captain and I agreed a slight lenghtening of the journey through Stellwagen Bank would be cool. Stellwagen Bank is a massive shelf, or upwelling of sand in Cape Cod Bay, and for the obvious reason (food), the Humpbacks and Right Whales love it there. In the Mid-Summer, the Right Whales are much farther North, but the Humpbacks are there in huge numbers, and they are huge, huge. Not only did we find the whales, but we found them feeding. Thanks to a lifetime of watching outdoor-themed television programming, I am somewhat of an expert on whale feeding tactics - the whales find the fish, circle, or "ball" the bait and then swim down and blow bubbles below the ball - disorienting the bait. What happens next is great, one lucky whale (the largest male, as it is in the wild kingdom, and my household) gets to jam up through the bait, leap out of the water with a mouthful of Sashimi. It really is spectacular.