Sounds Exiciting right? Yes! it was for me when I was told we are going whale watching on Sunday(1st April 2012). We were not sure if this was the right time to go for whale watch. The weather forecast looked good for sunday .The New England Aquarium at boston harbor was open for Whale watching. Arvind booked the tickets online. It costs $50 per person.
Voyager III was waiting at the New England Aquarium dock 15 mins before departing. We were not expecting too much crowd since whale watching had just began that week for the season. The Catamaran(Yatch) was full. All seats were occupied. It was fun to see excited people eager to watch whales.
People waiting in the queue were allowed to board the yatch after checking for tickets. We had a commentator giving us instructions about whale watching and saftey precautions.
As the Voyager lll left the dock, it got cold because of the breeze. I was all packed to be warm, it still felt very cold and freezing. The yatch takes us to the whale feeding grounds 30 miles away, east of Boston in the sea. This place is a sanctuary named Stellwagen Bank Marine Sanctuary.This sanctuary is just like our National parks for wild animals .But this one is in water. It is said we can spot different kinds of marine life here like Humpback whales, Finback whales, Minke whales,Dolphins and sea birds.
Few tiny Islands with a small light house and a huge sewage treatment plant are seen on the way to the sancturay. They look beautifull in the vast sea bed. When u look at the sea it looks blue, but when u look down the water looks green. After approximately an hour we reached the whale feeding place.
We were guided to constantly look around to spot a spalsh of water on the surface of sea. That Indicates the whale’s presence. The commentator gives the clock directions when they spot a whale coming up to breathe . If she says look towards 3’o clock, we are supposed to look right. We spotted the whales atleast 5-6 times. They are huge Humpback whales. One scene that excited me the most was couple humpback whales splashed to breath the same time, they came up the same time and swam back in symmetry. That was an amazing view.Here is the video.
After an hour of spotting for whales and dolphins, We headed back to the dock. It takes an hour to get back. It takes close to 4 hours for the entire trip of whale watching. Plan accordingly.
I still wish to see the whale jump out of water. With that hope I will visit them whenever we can.
For more information on Whale watch visit http://www.neaq.org/visit_planning/whale_watch/index.php
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