Tuesday, July 28

You could not have asked for better conditions to be surrounded by today. There was barely a breath of wind to speak of allowing for the ocean to have a glass-like effect giving us ample opportunities to see whales above the waterline and more marine life below! This morning we saw 4 Minke whales, a Blue shark, an Ocean sunfish and two Atlantic white-sided dolphins. Our first sighting of the day was a great whale, Scar Minke!

Scar

This whale has been seen so frequently this season and yet recently has been showing up in different locations around Jeffreys Ledge. What a nice way to start the day and enjoy the start to some great marine life sightings.

Scar's body (prior to its large scar visible at the surface)

We pressed on seeing other Minke whales and a few fish as we searched for other types of whales.

Minke whale that may match up to a whale we saw last year thanks to this whale's unique dorsal fin shape!

Nose/snout of a Minke whale coming straight towards us!

We were unable to find any other blubber until we were almost at the shoals and a tiny dorsal fin broke the surface. We all caught it out of the corner of our eyes so even we were interested to see what surfaced next. It was a dolphin, actually 2! It is rare to see only a couple of dolphins moving around together and even more so to keep track of them. But thankfully, due to the unbelievably perfect ocean conditions, we could relocate them each time they resurfaced.

Our pair of dolphins

This afternoon we checked out some different areas than where we were this morning. We were once again sighting plenty of Minke whales, 6 in total!

Continual amazing conditions with our whale sightings this afternoon

We also saw an Ocean sunfish as we headed further offshore.

 Ocean sunfish

Our trip wrapped up this time with a different baleen whale, a Fin whale. This whale was traveling along but we certainly got some great looks as it moved through the area.

Fin whale spout

Fin whale