Today was another beautiful day to be on the Atlantic Ocean. Minimal wind and great visibility meant we had ideal conditions to search for some wildlife. This morning we came into an area where there was so much to look at within such a specific region. We saw a spout, which turned into two (2 Humpback whales that is!), followed by an Ocean sunfish just in front of us and then suddenly at least 3 Minke whales around us.
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| Morning Ocean sunfish |
At one point we had a Humpback whale circling off our port side and a Minke whale passing by us on our starboard side. The boat was in the center of a marine life sandwich! Definitely a great position to be in.
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| Minke whale |
We were able to get some fantastic looks at all our sightings as the whales seemed to consistently maneuver around this concentrated area.
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| Humpback whale |
Our Humpback whales were #0050 and Quill and we even saw Scar Minke pass by at one point!
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| Humpback whale #0050 |
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| Scar Minke was one of the many whales seen moving around such a specific area of the ocean this morning |
This afternoon we started our trip with an Ocean sunfish before having 3 Minke whales traveling around the boat.
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| Afternoon Ocean sunfish swimming along |
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| Minke whale just beyond the Isles of Shoals |
Ever wonder how we tell one Minke whale apart from another? Check out the photos below to see just how different each dorsal fin of a Minke whale can be. Hint: Each photo is of a different Minke whale seen today!
Eventually we left this area only to come across another area where we had two more Minke whales moving around. A few times these whales appeared to move in close to one another before separating, only to once again circle in towards each other a few minutes later. Just think, of all the movements we see of whales at the surface there is still a whole other world the whales are moving in, assessing with and maneuvering around, below the waterline. One of our Minke whales in this pair decided to circle around us for a bit as we sat there with our engines shut off watching this whale swim up one side of the boat and down the other multiple times. Nature certainly has a way of putting us in awe.
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| Minke whale surfacing close to the boat as it circled around us! |
From there we still had more whales to see as we ended up seeing a total of 8 Minke whales and 2 Humpback whales this afternoon.
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| Humpback whale |
Our Humpback whales were #0050 and Quill again as we were lucky to have both of these whales continuing to spend time off the coast of NH today. Multiple times too we saw clouds of bubbles breaking the surface from our Humpback whales, a feeding mechanism these whales use to catch their food!
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| #0050 |
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| Quill |
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| Remnant of a bubble cloud just off the side of the boat |
It was certainly a day where the weather and the whales were hand in hand, each as incredibly beautiful and memorable as the other.
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| Mother Nature about as perfect as could be today |
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