Granite State Whale Watch: Wednesday, August 19

There were plenty of surprises we had over the course of both of our trips today. This morning we were fortunate enough to have a grand slam of whale species, 4 different kinds in just one trip. We saw a small pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins, 10 Minke whales, 2 Ocean sunfish, 2 Fin whales and looks at 2 of the 3 Humpback whales we saw.

A few of the half-dozen Atlantic white-sided dolphins seen just south of the Isles of Shoals

Subsurface Minke whale

Minke whale

Some of our whales were being a bit more elusive than others but such is the case when you go searching for wild animals. We have no way of knowing what we are going see, what behaviors any whale will do while spending time with it and how many whale will be spotted. Each experience out to the open ocean is as exciting for us as we hope it is for all of our passengers as we love what we do and enjoy sharing these experience with everyone. Our Humpback whales were Quill and Highlighter, familiar whales still spending time in the area.

Quill

Highlighter

We also checked out 2 Fin whales even though these whales were spending much more time below the waterline than some of the other whales we had already checked out.

First Fin whale of the morning

Our patience paid off waiting for these whales to resurface especially when we saw a very familiar whale that we haven't seen since July 21. Ladder is back! What a fin-tastic surprise!

Great to have you swimming around the area again Ladder!

This afternoon the wind and waves picked up a bit but, whales were still plentiful. We saw 5 Minke whales and 3 Humpback whales. Our first sighting of the afternoon was a very special sighting. It was a Minke whale mother and calf pair! In general we rarely see mother/calf Minke whales so it was a super fantastic find. On top of that, the calf was being quite active charging through the waves, breaching a couple of times and even rolled over at one point. This calf was being so squirmy it was tricky to get a photo of it but we did document mom which is now a confirmed female!

Dorsal fin of our Minke whale mom!

After leaving these two whales our next whale was another fun find. It was a Humpback whale but one we have yet to see in our area this season. This whale has such a unique tail pattern that even from a distance we knew who this whale was. It was Quote!