Sunday, September 6

Labor Day weekend is going strong and so are the whales. We had plenty of life to look at today on both of our trips. This morning we saw an Ocean sunfish, 4 Fin whales, 6 Minke whales and 3 Humpback whales. This afternoon we started our trip with a Basking shark, saw 2 Fin whales and ended the trip with a pair of Humpback whales. What a day. This morning we started the day in an area where Fin whales were circling all around us. There were at least 4 Fin whales darting around, sometimes grouping up in pairs, before separating once again.

One of our morning Fin whales

Among all of these whales was a familiar dorsal fin in the mix. Dingle was partaking in all of this movement around us.

Dingle the Fin whale

With a few more looks at our whales moving around us, and a quick look at an Ocean sunfish, we headed further offshore.

Ocean sunfish

We ended up spending time with 2 of the 3 Humpback whales we were seeing. We started with Geometry and then ended up with Nike.

Geometry the Humpback whale

Nike

Along the way we saw plenty of Minke whales pop up around us. This afternoon the sea breeze picked up and we were off to look for any of the same whales we saw this morning. Our first stop however was not a whale instead, it was a large shark. One of the second largest sharks in the world; we had a Basking shark!

Basking shark swimming straight in towards the boat!

This shark was insanely cooperative. While it remained slightly below the waterline, this shark never got spooked by our presence and we were able to get some fantastic looks at such a fun (and large) sighting!

Subsurface Basking shark

Eventually we let this shark swim away from us and we continued on. Our next stop was this time one of the second largest whales in the world! We ended up finding two different Fin whales.

Afternoon Fin whale

And guess what? One of our whales was Dingle again!

Afternoon sighting of Dingle the Fin whale

Our day ended up with a pair of a different type of whale. A pair of Humpback whales were on the move together but not moving far in any direction.

Humpback whale pair

We got some great looks at Mogul and Highlighter before it was time to head back to Rye Harbor. A very successful day checking out so much marine life in their natural habitat.

Humpback whale spout