We had so much to look at today. This morning we saw 2 minke whales, 2 fin whales, a pod of ~75 Atlantic white-sided dolphins and 3 ocean sunfish. This afternoon we ended up seeing 5 minke whales (including Scar!) and a fin whale. After an attempt to check out our first minke whale of the trip we came across a large pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins this morning.
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| Atlantic white-sided dolphin |
This pod was broken up into LOTS of sub-pods allowing us to move from small group to small group. We spent some quality time with these toothed whales before venturing on. Soon we saw a spout from a fin whale.
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| Fin whale |
Want to know what happened next? A small sub-pod of our original dolphin group quickly moved towards the fin whale as we watched this inter-species association commence. The dolphins remained with this fin whale the entire time we were there giving us the great size comparison of 6-8ft dolphins with that of a 60+ft fin whale!
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| Massive fin whale body along with a dolphin at the surface |
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| Dolphin swimming alongside this fin whale |
Among all that activity we even saw an ocean sunfish swimming just below the surface.
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| Subsurface ocean sunfish |
Eventually, we decided to leave the whales in the area. But guess what? Another fin whale was spotted swimming towards us and soon we had TWO fin whales not only associated with each other but also with the sub-pod of dolphins! It is always so enjoyable to bear witness to the comings and goings of these majestic mammals.
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| Second fin whale swimming in towards the area |
On our way home we ended up passing by two more sunfish stopping for a quick look at one.
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| Ocean sunfish #2 of the morning |
This afternoon we ended up seeing 5 minke whales and a fin whale. The fin whale was one of the two we had sighted this morning.
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| Impressive fin whale spout |
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| Fin whale "blanketed" in water |
Unlike this morning, we now found ourselves surrounded by minke whales. There were at least four in the same area as the fin whale! We found ourselves bouncing from the multiple minke whales in the area to the fin whale circling nearby. Never was it long before we would see a fin of some sort at the surface.
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| Minke whales (above and below) |
It was a great day experiencing wildlife in the Gulf of Maine.
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| Afternoon fin whale |
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