Tuesday, July 21

Today required some patience. This morning it took a while before we came across a whale. We started in fog, ended in fog and found ourselves in and out of it all during our travels. Many thanks to our offshore fishing friends as we got news of a whale sighting. We made our way to the reported area and found a very familiar whale. It was Scar! We were able to get some very nice looks at a whale that was first documented on the Granite State in 1995!

Scar Minke (above and below)

This afternoon we once again found ourselves departing Rye Harbor in the fog. This time however, we managed to break free and found ourselves surrounded by many more miles of visibility!

A few of the harbor porpoise seen soon after leaving Rye Harbor this afternoon

Soon we found ourselves spending time with a Fin whale moving about. Thanks to our other whale watching friends, once they had gotten a chance to watch this whale, we were fortunate enough to get a few looks at such a large mammal.

First Fin whale seen this afternoon

Fin whales have such large bodies!

Our trip ended after another sighting of a Fin whale but this time there were 2 Fin whales together! These whales were spending a good amount of time under the water, definitely on the move, and so it took us a bit of time to get some nice looks at these whales. Our patience paid off for at one point we watched both these whale surface nearby as they cruised through the water with such ease. As we watched these animals it took only a few seconds to confirm our thoughts. We had another extremely familiar whale close by and for that matter another Blue Ocean Society adopt-a-whale! It was Ladder! A whale that is almost ALWAYS seen swimming alongside another Fin whale.

Ladder

Ladder has such an angled spout we sometimes can guess if we are watching this whale based on its angled spout before confirming our thoughts with more distinguishing characteristics

Fin whale associated with Ladder

What a special surprise as this is only the second time we have seen Ladder so far this season. A great way to wrap up our time offshore before we found ourselves once again engulfed by fog as we got back to Rye Harbor.