Thursday, August 21

Cloudy skies and flat calm ocean conditions made for absolutely perfect conditions for spotting whale backs and dorsal fins at the surface. And today did not disappoint as our day was full of marine life! This morning our tally included a few groups of Harbor porpoise, 10 Minke whales, a couple of Harbor seals, a Blue shark and an Ocean sunfish!

Harbor porpoise soon after leaving the Harbor this morning

First Minke whale of the day

The ocean was as good as it could get as we were able to get some nice looks at so many types of life.

Minke whales can be distinguished from one another by using the shapes of their dorsal fins (check out the fins on the whales above and below!)

Another Minke whale of the morning

Blue shark at the surface

Ocean sunfish just a couple of miles outside the Harbor as we made our way home from our morning trip!

This afternoon we once again got a chance to check out a few groups of Harbor porpoise before seeing 7 Minke whales, a Fin whale and a group of about 30 Atlantic white-sided dolphins! A few of our Minke whales were darting around the boat as we got some great looks at these whales.

First Minke whale of the afternoon

This Minke whale has a much more pointed dorsal fin when compared to the first whale of the trip

Further along we got a chance to spend time with a large Fin whale. It was Dingle! This whale spent a good amount of time at the surface which gave us all the opportunity to get some amazing looks at this enormous type of whale!

Dingle at the surface just off our port side!

Dingle

Harbor porpoise (above and below) as they appeared right to the boat as we were awaiting for Dingle the Fin whale to resurface

Before heading for home we were lucky enough to end our day with a group of Atlantic white-sided dolphins (thanks Captain Brad!).

Atlantic white-sided dolphin!

This group consisted of some very young dolphins along with plenty of older animals. We got to see just how so many of these differently sized whales can synchronize their movements and travel along as one cohesive group.

Small and larger dolphins were seen in this pod!

This dolphin jumped sky high all of a sudden!

What a great way to end an awesome day full of fish, toothed-whales and baleen whales of all sorts!