Thursday, September 3

Today was one of those rare days when heading offshore did no good in attempting to get refuge from the summer heat. There was literally not a breath of wind out on the ocean and so instead we enjoyed the warm weather offshore. Of course when we were watching all the whales we spotted today that tended to be the excitement around the boat. We saw so much marine life in such flat calm ocean conditions. We saw three groups of harbor porpoise, at least 9 harbor seals, 5 Minke whales, 6 Fin whales, 4 Humpback whales and an Ocean sunfish. Minke whales continue to be scattered around the offshore regions as we maneuvered around the area today. We started with a very sneaky Fin whale, holding its breath for a long time and barely showing much of its massive body, when it was at the surface.

A massive Fin whale just barely creating a ripple as it surfaces

Turns out every single one of the Fin whales we saw today were equally as sneaky. Many of these whales never appeared to go on very deep dives. Instead, these whales would just slip below the waterline, disappearing from our vantage point, as secretly as they had appeared. Check out some of the many shapes of the dorsal fins from our Fin whales we saw today. These fins are all so distinct from one another and what researchers can use to tell them apart from each other:

First Fin whale of the day, with its lack of dorsal fin

Fin whale #0354

Crow the Fin whale

This Fin whale suddenly appeared alongside Crow from the depths of the ocean!

Along with our Fin whale sightings we started with Mogul the Humpback whale.

Mogul

We then watched Nike and Highlighter move through the water today before finishing up with #0050.

Nike and Highlighter

Nike poking it's muddy head above the water as Highlighter remains close by

#0050

Our day finished with a sighting of an Ocean sunfish before making our final trek back to Rye Harbor. Another great day with so many wild animals.

Ocean sunfish