Sunday, August 10

The ocean couldn't have been more calm as we were in search of whales on both of our trips today. This morning we started with a single Fin whale.

Fin whale

Incoming Fin whale

It was #0402, a whale first identified by our friends at Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation in 2004. We got some great looks at this whale before coming across a pair of Fin whales moving around together.

Fin whale #0402

Remnants of a Fin whale rain-blow!

We have only been able to confirm the identity of one of the whales in our Fin whale pair, Crow(!), as it was still impressive to watch these two whales maneuver through the water together.

Crow the Fin whale

With some very nice looks we ventured further offshore and came across a few Minke whales circling around. We ended up spending time with a whale a bit closer to us and in a matter of moments we were super excited to see this particular whale. It was Scar Minke! This whale has been documented since 1995 in our area and we are always thrilled to see this whale spending time in our small section of the ocean!

The very prominent scar found on the back of Scar Minke

Scar Minke coming to the surface for a breath of air

Before the trip ended we saw a couple of other Minke whales and ended our trip on another single Fin whale. This whale spent most of its time slowly traveling along until just before it was time to go this whale decided to circle around, so much so it circled right in towards us. We ended up getting an amazing look as this whale swam right passed the boat! What a fin-tastic way to end our trip!

Fin whale surfacing right next to the boat!

This afternoon we got a quick look at an Ocean sunfish before spending time with a pair of Fin whales. It was Crow and "friend" once again. It was the same two whales we had seen this morning still swimming around with each other!

Hello again Crow!

These two whales were not moving through the area in any particular direction so as they circled around we were able to get some great looks as they synchronized their movements together in the water.

The other Fin whale seen associated with Crow today

Our travels next took us to other areas as we saw a few Minke whales before we once again found ourselves with a pair of Fin whales. But this was not the same pair we had seen from earlier in the trip. We had come across another pair on the move together! And who was it? Turns out it was #0402 (a whale we had seen swimming on it's own this morning) with Dingle alongside it!

Dingle in the foreground as the dorsal fin of #0402 begins to disappear in the background

Dingle

What a great sight to see in just a few hours how some whales may continue to stay associated with the same animals while others join up in such a short matter of time. So fascinating to watch and see the interactions these incredibly large mammals can have with each other at any given point in time!

Beautiful day to be on a boat and watch wild whales!