Sunday, May 21

If you could imagine a great day of whale watching today would be one of those days. The weather was perfect with seas calm and the sun shining as we headed offshore today. The calm seas meant any good-sized disturbance had the potential for our target activity: whales. Little did we know what we had in store for us. We ended up seeing 21 whales and that does not include the spouts we saw out on the horizon and just didn't have the chance to get to! The breakdown of our whales toady included 6 fin whales, 6 humpback whales and 9 sei whales!

One of the many fin whale spotted today

Skim-feeding sei whales swimming in towards each other

Single and pairs of fin whales were around as humpback whales popped up here and there. The humpback whales we identified today included Veteran, Nine, Willow, Spoon and Cirrus.

Veteran the humpback whale

Willow the humpback whale

Trio of humpback whales at the surface: Spoon, Cirrus and Willow

However, it was the sei whales that stole the spotlight today! This species can often go unseen during a season so not only were we lucky to come across so many of these speedy baleen whales but they were actively feeding as well!

Close-up of a sei whale feeding at the surface

Side lunge-feeding sei whale

We witnessed multiple sei whales skim-feeding and lunge feeding through the water. Incredible moments in incredible conditions meant today was quite the picture perfect day.

Sei whales crossing paths as they were feeding in every which direction!

Synchronized open-mouth feeding sei whales

A representation of just how wide a sei whale can open its mouth to capture as much food as possible in every single mouthful!