The holiday weekend is underway and with whales around it was a great way to start the weekend. Our travels around Jeffreys Ledge today ended up producing 11 Fin whales and one Minke whale. Our sightings today were quite the change from last week's trip and a reminder of how fluid these massive creatures of the deep can come and go in a moment's notice. We first started our day getting some great looks at a familiar whale to Jeffreys Ledge. Bolshoi the Fin whale, a whale first seen in the Gulf of Maine in 1980(!), was moving around the area.
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| Bolshoi's
body scars that help us to recognize this whale from other Fin
whales and the reality of the life of a whale: lots of chances to have
unfortunate interactions with human-related activities including boat
propellers. |
It has been a few years since this whale was last seen on Jeffreys Ledge so we were very excited to see this whale again! We spent a bit more time with Bolshoi before we were off to investigate other spouts nearby. More Fin whales were cruising around.
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| Another Fin whale swimming by |
The trip wasn't over yet for we ended our time offshore in an area where there were spouts from at least 6 other Fin whales in all directions around the boat.
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| Fin whale in the forefront with another Fin whale spout in the background! |
We were able to check out a few of these other Fin whales before heading home. What a nice surprise to round out the trip for one of the whales meandering around was a familiar fin belonging to Fin whale #9724.
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| Fin whale #9724 |
Who knows what the whales will do/be tomorrow but it was certainly nice to see so many signs of marine life out on the Ledge today!
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