Monday, June 26

Today we saw multiple species of whales and an added bonus of basking sharks on both of our trips! This morning we saw 3 fin whales, 3 minke whales, 2 humpback whales and 7 basking sharks.

Fin whale

Fin whale exhaling

Humpback whale tail

We got some great looks at all of the different types of whales we saw including Dingle the fin whale and humpback whales Hornbill and Gondolier.

Dingle the fin whale

Hornbill the humpback whale

Gondolier the humpback whale

On on travels back to the mainland we found ourselves surrounded by 5 basking sharks just beyond the Isles of Shoals. What a fun surprise!

Close-up look at a basking shark so close to the boat

Basking shark wandering through the water beyond the Isles of Shoals. Don't worry. These fish have no major teeth. They are filter feeders and are only "dangerous" to the plankton they eat!

Basking shark with White Island Lighthouse in the background

Basking shark swimming at the surface. The fin on the left is the tail fin and on the right is its dorsal fin

This afternoon we headed straight to our basking shark "hot spot" in hopes one of these large sharks were still moseying around. We soon checked out one of the two basking sharks we sighted in the same general area.

Basking shark fin beyond the Isles once again!

Basking shark dorsal fin

As we moved further offshore we saw 3 fin whales, 3 minke whales and Hornbill and Gondolier the humpback whales again. There was certainly plenty of wildlife to enjoy today!

Fin whale diving

Hornbill

Gondolier