Sunday, September 14

Yay! The day has finally come where we were able to get back out offshore. The weather this past week has been pretty crummy with lots and lots of wind making the ocean quite rough. Finally today the weather was on our side, enough so to get back in search of whales! Whales were out and about and while a few whales seemed to want nothing to do with us (we had 2 Fin whales throughout our travels today that were seen once and then pretty much completely disappeared!) many of the other whales were much more conducive to watch. We started the day with a quick look at a Minke whale before we saw a spout in the distance. While the spout turned out to be an elusive Fin whale while we were awaiting for this baleen whale to resurface we instead found a small group of toothed-whales! A small pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins were moving into the area (thanks for the find Scott!).

A few of the small pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins in the area today

Dolphins cruising near the boat

We spent time with these whales getting some nice looks before we saw more spouts out in the distance. Once we eventually made our way towards these whales we recognized one of the pair of Humpback whales instantaneously due to her unique dorsal fin. It was Quote, a whale we last saw on August 5th of this year!

We saw Quote almost 20 miles from where we last had this whale over a month ago!

But Quote wasn't alone. Along side this adult female was another adult female, a whale we have yet to see in our area this year, Liner! Great to watch these two large females on the move together.

Liner

Liner's back and dorsal fin

Next we came into an area where we thought we had a few whales which certainly turned out to be the case. Nike the Humpback whale was circling around the area creating a bubble cloud at one point.

Bubble cloud finally reaching the surface of the ocean

While this was happening off the other side of the boat we suddenly had a group of Atlantic white-sided dolphins associated with a Fin whale. Out in the distance was another Humpback whale; you just didn't know where to look. On top of that we ended up checking out more whales including Chromosome logging with another whale and ended the day with Valley and Sickle.

Chromosome

Sickle

Valley's back and wannabe dorsal fin

Whales continue to not only be around but equally as surprising as familiar whale tails continue to be seen along with a few newcomers for the year! Hopefully the weather cooperates for a bit of time so we can get back out on the water again sooner than later.