Wednesday, July 22

The mid-work-week provided some great Minke whale watching today. This morning we first started with our familiar friend Scar.

Scar

This whale was doing so many circles around the area that at one point we just sat there with our engines turned off and watched this whale swim all around us.

Scar surfacing for a breath of air

We even got a chance to have this whale swim in towards us on multiple occasions getting some incredible looks at the scar this whale has along its back.

Incoming Scar seeing a slightly different angle of its scar

As we traveled along we ended up seeing four more Minke whales, all in one area. We can identify these whale from one another based on the shape of their dorsal fins. Check out a few of the other whales we saw below to see how differently shaped their dorsal fins are:

Other Minke whales seen this morning (above and below)

Before heading for home we found ourselves near Boon Island and so we decided to see if any seals were around to view before starting our travels back towards Rye Harbor.

Such a beautiful ocean as we approached Boon Island

Seals both in and out of the water

This afternoon we stopped on multiple occasions in attempts to watch Minke whales in the area. Each time we stopped we were unable to relocate our whales. There was no doubt we were definitely having a challenging time. But, just as whales are extremely unpredictable (in both good and difficult ways) our luck changed in just a matter of time. Out in the distance we saw a massive splash. And then another. There was a whale out in the distance jumping clear out of the water. Since we know whales can start and stop this type of behavior at any moment we quickly made our way over towards this splashing. Well were we lucky or what. Our hard-working Blue Ocean Society interns, Corie and Lauren, recorded our Minke whale jump out of the water 21 times while we watched this whale.

Minke whale breach! Looks like this whale is a female based on the mammary slits we can see on this whale's belly!

Dorsal fin of our extremely active Minke whale that we now know the gender of!

So crazy! We were all in awe as we watched this whale launch its entire body out of the water over and over and over again.

Minke whale body

This type of behavior does not happen often so when you are lucky to be witness to a whale jumping out of the water just once it is truly an experience and one to remember. And perhaps more importantly we should all also remember that all whales can leap out of the water but it is not a normal occurrence by any stretch of the means.

Torpedo-like effect of a Minke whale jumping out of the water!