Monday, August 10

Our trips today were definitely unique in their own ways. This morning we saw 9 Minke whales. However, each time we attempted to check out one of these many whales we had a tricky time actually getting any looks. The whales seemed to want nothing to do with us. Speedily moving through the water, spending a majority of time below the surface, or just not even relocating them were the sometimes frustrating moments we were dealing with.

Most of our Minke whale sightings today were extremely brief as they moved away from us rarely to be seen again close by

The whales certainly did a great job reminding us all that they are the wild beings we go in search of and sometimes they just do not want to be watched. As we continued to search for some sort of whale activity that would be cooperative we got a whale report. Thanks to our other whale watching friends (aka. Keen-eyed Chris) there was a pair of whales to the south of us! We altered course and headed that way. We ended up getting some phenomenal looks at a Fin whale mother and her calf!

Fin whale mom

Fin whale calf

The majority of time we watched these whales they were barely moving through the water mainly because they were nursing. We watched such massive mammals slip through the water with such ease as mom hovered below the waterline while the calf alternated its surfacing around mom, an indication of nursing behavior.

Fin whale pair at the surface

Eventually these whales decided to travel on as our patience of whale watching paid off with such a "fin"-omenal sight to wrap up our morning trip with.

Mother and calf Fin whales going on a deeper dive

This afternoon we first started with a very cooperative Minke whale. Our first whale of the trip and we were getting better looks at this one whale than we had with any of the Minke whales seen during our morning travels!

Minke whale south of the Isles of Shoals

After we watched this Minke whale continually surface alongside the boat we ventured off to do some searching. Eventually we found ourselves with two spouts ahead of us but these spouts were not from Fin whales. Instead, we had found 2 Humpback whales. And low and behold it was Quill and #0050, both of whom have been around this past week.

#0050's tail

These whales were not where they have recently been seen (as recent as yesterday!) but we have to remember that whales can, and often do(!), move as the food moves. There is never a guarantee that where we have seen whales are where they are going to be in the future. Thanks to all of our patient passengers today as our trips provided some wonderful looks at wildlife as we ventured offshore to search for some incredible ocean-dwelling mammals.