After cancelling yesterday due to the crumby seas, we
ventured out this afternoon after letting the seas calm down a bit. We were
rewarded with glassy calm conditions and a variety of marine life. We saw a nice pod of harbor porpoises close
to shore (as their name implies) but these little guys are a bit shy so we kept
going. We also passed a harbor seal pup before seeing a minke whale. This whale
was a bit elusive at first but then was up a bunch close to the boat. We had a
second harbor seal in this area too!
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| minke whale |
We then spotted some splashing in the distance and went to
investigate. A pod of 40ish Atlantic white sided dolphins were milling about.
With the flat-calm conditions, we got to see a dozen of them cruise right next
to the boat, just below the surface. It was like an aquarium view except that
this was even better since these dolphins were completely wild and free! We watched as mothers and calves swam under the bow and as a few “porpoised”
out of the water, showing off their beautiful stripes.
Continuing on, we found a fin whale that was cruising just
below the surface, only leaving footprints behind to let us know where it was.
It surfaced for one breath, right next to us, and then dove. After 20 minutes of waiting, we decided to
go home. Just as we put the engines in gear, the whale, known as #0354,
surfaced close by. We scooted over to it and got amazing views of the 2nd
largest animal on the planet. Incredible!
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| Fin whale blow |
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| Fin whale #0354 |
To end the trip, we stopped on a small (10 foot) basking
shark who was circling around collecting plankton.
Awesome day!
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